Expendable Heroes
by Lord Mendasuit
Summary: Sasuke Uchiha could never quite understand how a boy two years his junior somehow managed to get into the academy and remain there despite dead-last status. Suffice to say, he's in for quite a shock when said little boy hands him his ass. And that, as they say, is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. AU, No Massacre.
1. Fateful Rivalry

Yo.

This is my first attempt at making an actually serious Naruto fic, doods, so it might fail spectacularly and blow up on my face. Regardless, I'd rather you all at least have a fun read and don't worry, if you're a fan of any of my other projects, I don't abandon fics, even if it takes me a few months to update them since I write on the rule of fun.

An explanation that details the AU can be found at the bottom, since I couldn't fit it in here.

I doubt this fic will be very long in terms of chapters, so at the very least, if I waste your time it won't be much of it, so, do give it a read and tell me what'cha think.

As for the implications of yaoi? Well, it's up to interpretation, just like in canon.

* * *

Sasuke was a budding Taijutsu genius.

His body adapted faster and grew stronger. He was fast both to learn and to move. Even without his Sharingan, he was capable of remembering a variety of stances and movements that he incorporated into the structured Uchiha Interceptor style to counter the need for the Sharingan. Something he had learned from his brother, nine times out of ten, if you can trick a Sharingan you can defeat its owner.

The interceptor style, without knowing exactly where an attack came from was useless, so Sasuke learned from his brother a variety of moves he himself picked up from his ANBU team and from his other comrades.

His talent in Taijutsu quickly impressed his elder brother, even if his ninjutsu left something to be desired from his father. He had taken far, far too long to master the Goukakyuu, which had been something that drove a divide between him and his family until his brother figured out that he simply didn't have talent for the Uchiha's prized fire jutsu gallery. Just about anything else came easy to Sasuke, particularly Raiton, even if he wasn't up to Itachi's level, or even close.

Genjutsu he suffered from both a lack of interest and of talent, but it was okay, as long as he could detect and break Genjutsu, he could wait until his Sharingan took care of actively casting the Genjutsu in the first place. It was leaning on a crutch, but even Itachi admitted that having a weapon and not using it is quite dumb.

Because Sasuke was overall the best student in the class with by far the best grades in Taijutsu of the entire class, there was something that he hadn't expected.

He had been defeated in a spar. Very easily, even.

And there wasn't anything to say about it. He never went easy on anyone, because to him it was an insult to downplay one's abilities, but even so, when he'd been pitted against the dead last, who had barely passing grades in all categories and was even two years younger (how the hell the boy managed to not be booted back to his proper grade was something that Sasuke would never know, must be a paperwork mishap)…

The boy was so tiny, so thin and so pathetic that Sasuke couldn't help but underestimate him. So when he went for a quick win, he found himself on the floor, with a foot on his chest that drove the air away from his lungs. The blond boy didn't say a word, he just turned around and walked away after countering Sasuke's simple straight to the face and defeating him with only one move.

An eight year old boy who should have been in his first year of the academy, who was nearly failing every class, had just completely curbstomped the Rookie Of The Year without even trying.

Sasuke took a deep breath and tried to ignore his swimming vision. He had seen it all. When Sasuke's fist neared the boy's face, he'd grabbed it and used the Uchiha's own momentum to throw him to the ground, before stomping on his chest only once.

A simple, delightfully basic counterattack, executed to perfection.

He shook and cleared his head, finding the tanned, frowning face of Umino Iruka, contorted with concern, looking him over. "I'm fine." Sasuke announced, taking in much needed breath. His chest hurt, it'd probably bruise.

Sasuke could hear the screeching of his fangirls, the ones he'd collected over the years of being the best at everything, some of them screaming at the blond who'd wordlessly stuck his head in a book without seeming to hear them and the rest questioning him on his health and safety.

The curse of all Uchiha, the Fangirls, were going to drive him absolutely nuts, so he tuned them out in favor of focusing his attention on the boy who was even now ignoring everything around him.

Then he decided. The dead last had completely surpassed him in what was his best subject. Therefore, in order to prove he was worthy of being called a Taijutsu Genius, he'd defeat him. And the best way to defeat an opponent is to learn about them, how their techniques work, and how to counter them.

It was at that point that Uchiha Sasuke, rookie of the year, had chosen the dead last as his rival.

* * *

Half lidded, sapphire blue eyes ran from word to word, not missing a single one. There was absolutely no doubt in Umino Iruka's mind that the boy was paying just about no attention to his lecture, and he did not know what to do about said fact.

The Sandaime Hokage had made it very clear than any and all attempts at sabotaging his education would be met with force. The Shinobi History teacher had learned this firsthand when he'd tried to kick Naruto out of his classes. The Hokage kept a very close eye on the village's jinchuuriki and he did NOT tolerate bias against him. Not to mention, the god of Shinobi delivered the punishments himself.

People did not have the balls to even correct the boy when he was doing something wrong, such as paying more attention to the orange-covered, unlabeled books he seemed to carry around everywhere than to the teacher that was attempting to educate him into becoming a halfway decent Shinobi.

It took a full minute of internal debate while his body continued to go through the lesson on auto pilot before he finally decided that, jinchuuriki or not, Hokage's favorite or not, the boy was nonetheless one of his students and Iruka prided himself in being a fair and unbiased teacher. "Uzumaki-san, if you do not pay attention to the lecture, I will have to ask you to remain after class to make up for the time you miss." Iruka called, more than a bit of irritation to his voice.

The boy said nothing, as usual, merely slammed his book shut and settled it, carefully, against his desk, turning his gaze to the chalkboard and then, to Iruka. The tanned teacher allowed himself a smirk at the sight.

Uzumaki was a problem boy, rarely, if ever, doing anything the teachers commanded him to do, or so the gossip went, so seeing him obey a command like this was a point of pride to Iruka. At the very least, Uzumaki respected him enough to.

When he turned back to the chalkboard, however, his hand snapped behind the back of his head and blocked a small piece of chalk, most likely pilfered at some point from one of the teachers. He was not a Shinobi for nothing, so Iruka quickly turned around. His gaze locked onto where Uzumaki was, still sitting with a bored look on his face.

"It was Uzumaki, sensei! I saw him!" A brown haired boy spoke, pointing at the blond and grinning widely. There were nods from several of his classmates, causing Iruka to frown and stare at Uzumaki, who said nothing to defend himself.

He never did say anything to defend himself, and seemed to accept his status as a troublemaker… Iruka didn't know why. Maybe he just liked the attention? It was a possibility. The boy was usually so silent, calm and quiet that it was easy to miss him. Even in the glaringly orange jumpsuit, the boy somehow managed to be a stealth expert on par with trained ANBU when he wanted to be.

After all, the boy had once slipped in two hours late to a lesson and nobody had noticed he was there until the Taijutsu lessons.

"It wasn't him." A voice far too solemn to be coming from a child cut over the people agreeing with the brown haired boy who'd accused Naruto in the first place. The voice of the Uchiha, all of them, often carried that calm and authoritative quality to it that made others listen to them.

Iruka supposed that that was why they were one of the most important clans of Konohagakure, besides them being the one remaining founding clan. Iruka smiled. "Uchiha-san?" He prodded, turning to the black haired second in line to the Uchiha Clan.

The boy clasped his hands in front of his face. "It was Mutou."

Of course Iruka had known it had been the brown haired boy himself the whole time. To think that the boy that still had chalk in his hands thought he could hide his actions from a chunin was outright ludicrous. The tanned teacher merely smiled because he saw someone sticking up for the eight year old boy who seemed to be the target of bullies everywhere he went.

"Mutou-san, you will remain after class and will have to write an essay about why it is a terrible idea to lie to a chunin unless you're absolutely certain you can get away with it." Iruka said, looking his most disappointed to the entire class.

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, looked on none too impressed at the staff of the academy. Last year, their work hadn't been particularly impressive, considering that the genin that had passed their jounin sensei's test, all twelve of them, were rather pathetic and the rookie and Kunoichi of the year had both been forced to fail thanks to the old tradition of putting them in a team together with the dead last, who was so far away from a competent ninja that it wasn't even funny.

This was a problem that cropped up from following tradition. When Sarutobi first took Jiraiya along with Tsunade and Orochimaru, he'd done so because Jiraiya had had as much, if not even more, raw talent than the other two put together and he'd been proven right when Jiraiya had become the glue of the team.

The decline of the quality of the genin had caused him to actually pay close attention to the teachers and how they performed their duties which had resulted in firing four teachers who'd probably get discharged as Shinobi altogether. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put the people who are being denied promotion to work as teachers? Touji Mizuki had been found out as a traitor not too long ago, and had had a full two years to sabotage his classes, and the other three were just outright incompetent.

Regardless, he let himself smile when he saw Iruka's report on his favorite student's near spotless disciplinary record this year. Iruka had flat out pointed out how the boy almost always ended up as a scapegoat for his classmates' idiocy, and given his uncaring attitude, he never did anything to defend himself, either.

Iruka had actually told the Uzumaki to pay attention and, lo and behold, Uzumaki did, eyes never straying away from wherever the teacher intended them to be, even if they appeared as unconcerned and uncaring as ever, Iruka had noticed a marked improvement in Uzumaki's overall grades when he paid attention to class. As well as a sky-rocket of his Taijutsu grades after they started to grade based on actual fighting proficiency instead of theoretical knowledge and the ability to execute the kata the teacher instructed.

Granted, it required telling him to stop reading the goddamn book once every hour or so, but hey, it was progress.

* * *

Sasuke was not often seen after class hanging around the town. As the Uchiha Heir, he was a juicy target for just about anyone, so usually you'd see him training in his clan's compound. Today, however, he had found himself in dire need of wandering around town randomly, the exact reason being that he was unnaturally bored.

Itachi was out god knows where doing god knows what, his father was busy running the MP and his mother had her own genin team to take care of.

Plus, his mission to learn about how Uzumaki had gotten so outstandingly strong.

He had never seen Uzumaki exert himself. When they were made to run, Uzumaki didn't even have to control his breath, he just ran at a steady pace from beginning to end, often without even lifting his head from his book. When they were made to spar, whoever ended up sparring with Uzumaki would often have their world turned upside down without ever so much as touching him.

Only on this year would they actually start getting taught the control and manipulation of chakra, apparently the first few years were weeding out those who could definitely not be ninja while the last two were supposed to actually train one into harnessing the power of their chakra. Made sense to not train the dropouts in the use of a shinobi's most versatile tool.

So whatever it was, it wasn't chakra. It wasn't natural physical ability, as Uzumaki was rightfully the smallest member of the class, being two years younger than everyone else and even then rather small for a child of nine.

Sasuke did not expect to get an answer to his many questions when he wandered through the training grounds (often people went to watch some of the more showy Shinobi training, provided some entertainment, while Sasuke often went to steal techniques he might use in his own training if any proved interesting enough), but he did. In a lone training ground, designed for physical practice, he noticed a familiar blob of orange and yellow.

After the summer, Uzumaki's hair had gotten slightly longer, and he was certain that if it wasn't as spiky as it was the bangs sticking from above his headband would fall onto his eyes. The blond had probably added it to simulate a forehead protector or, more likely, to block the hair from bothering him.

Sasuke's eyes were fixated on Uzumaki's tiny fists hitting the wood of a training post. Mostly because every time they did, the red stain underneath the post seemed to get a tiny bit bigger, while there was an indentation shaped like a pair of tiny fists that was also colored red in the post itself.

To say that the Uchiha was transfixed by the display would have been an understatement, and then he knew. He knew why Uzumaki was as good at actual Taijutsu as he was. Whereas Sasuke banked on his natural talent and ability to remain far ahead of the curb, Uzumaki trained and built upon his own innate talent.

Sasuke sat on the wall that divided the rather small and untidy training site from the park it was close to and simply watched Uzumaki unload punch after punch after punch, often delivering upwards of a hundred strikes in one form only to switch to his legs and then back. Had he not stared intently at his legs, he might not have noticed the red liquid running down the boy's sandals.

He winced upon seeing the mutilated state of the boy's feet, once tanned skin in a combination of bruise-purples and blood red.

It wasn't until after an hour of continued training, that Sasuke observed, that Uzumaki actually began to slow down, the intervals of movements becoming shorter and more varied as he had to switch between his limbs faster and faster, lest one become exhausted.

Impressed as he was, Sasuke didn't miss the fact that the heat had forced Uzumaki to discard his orange jacket, revealing a perhaps once plain white shirt that now resembled a collection of holes more closely than a piece of clothes. Since the shirt was short sleeved, it let Sasuke appreciate just how truly thin Uzumaki's arms were. He was certain that he could grab both of his arms with one hand without problem.

They were also covered in white bandages stained with both blood and sweat. The holes in the shirt's torso also let Sasuke observe the fact that Uzumaki's entire body, not just his arms, was covered in bandages.

In the end, however, he couldn't just stay and watch there forever… so he decided he might as well begin his own training to catch up. The best way to catch up to someone who trains harder than you is to train as hard as, or harder, than that person, and the training grounds were easily big enough for both of them.

Uzumaki didn't even spare him a glance as Sasuke began to get rid of his own stress by utilizing the facilities of the training ground to exercise his muscles. Uzumaki was lost into his own training, it seemed, and from the complicated combo that he seemed to be executing on the training dummy (that involved several movements that would have made most non-ninja males wince), Sasuke understood why.

Sasuke, however, wasn't lost to his training and was, as a matter of fact, was acutely aware of everything that happened around him. He blamed it on his brother's awareness training (involving throwing senbon at him whenever Sasuke lost track of his surroundings), but it allowed him to hear something that most people would've missed in the chaotic mess of sounds that accompanied ninja training.

There was a crack. A short, almost silent gasp, and then a thud.

Sasuke turned around to see Uzumaki on the floor, probably after a complicated maneuver that had gone wrong the moment the training dummy had been snapped in half and, given the torn look of the orange pant leg that still clung to Uzumaki's blood and sweat soaked skin, had broken into splinters and dug into the small boy's skin.

Sasuke had to commend Uzumaki's stoic demeanor at not cracking, even under the no doubt huge pain he must have felt at the time. In fact, Uzumaki didn't even seem to hesitate as he began to rip the larger bits of wood from his leg without a care in the world and when his hand came down upon his leg, Sasuke noticed that the boy's hand was also covered in splinters.

He sighed and remembered a time when his own elder brother had explained to him that pulling anything imbedded into your body carelessly can do more damage than what it did going in. Fugaku had corroborated this, explaining to Sasuke that all police officers knew the basics of field first aid and Sasuke himself would be no exception.

"You'll only hurt yourself if you pull them out like that." Sasuke said, though Uzumaki didn't seem to care particularly and only gave him a stare that carried only the slightest hint of confusion. Sasuke had a hard time reading it, but still, he sighed and walked up to the still sitting blond, ignoring his intent gaze and kneeling in front of the wounded leg, inspecting the splinters lodged in it. "You should probably go to the hospital… your leg looks pretty badly beaten…" He said, after taking a moment to look at the horribly bruised lump of flesh that might have once been someone's shin.

Uzumaki merely shook his head and went back to pulling the splinters out without consideration for his own well being.

Sasuke grabbed his hand at the wrist. "You're doing this wrong. You will only hurt yourself. Let me do it." He didn't know what had possessed him to even close the distance between them. He supposed he was just still in awe and feeling respect towards the one who trained his body even after the point where even the most determined of men would have stopped.

The blond didn't do or say anything other than lower his hand. Sasuke took it as his cue and went back to work on Uzumaki's leg with a concentrated frown.

* * *

Maybe it had been the afternoon he spent tending to his wounds. Maybe it was the fact that he'd gotten stabbed by his own fair share of splinters that day. Maybe it was the simple fact that Uzumaki was the only sparring partner who Sasuke could not easily defeat.

Whatever it was, Sasuke had found out that Uzumaki did not ignore him as he ignored everyone else in the class. This meant that the blond had as much respect for him as he had for the teachers and , contrary to popular opinion, Uzumaki seemed to have a high opinion of the academy's staff, particularly one Umino Iruka.

The mere fact that he listened to what they said and looked at them at all spoke volumes, given that Uzumaki still had the nasty habit of focusing on whatever book it was that he'd gotten in his hands when anyone else spoke. Whenever one of their classmates would speak to Uzumaki, the blond would just continue reading.

The fact that he put down the book and actually turned to regard Sasuke whenever Sasuke actually spoke to him made the rumors about whatever their relationship might be, mostly propagated by the more… fanatic members of Sasuke's own fanclub, fly all over the academy, but it was none of Sasuke's concerns.

After all, unlike just about everyone else, Uzumaki actually knew how to listen and that was what Sasuke wanted from him.

* * *

Uzumaki, despite his brutal training style, actually seemed to know what he was doing when he trained himself. Sasuke had learned quite a lot from the blond's own movements and incorporated several of them into his own move-set. Sasuke had a knack for copying another's abilities, even without his Sharingan, which had made him even further excited of when he'd finally get his Sharingan, since he could not only copy the abilities he saw, but also improve upon them.

Yet Uzumaki had still never initiated the interaction between them. Sasuke understood that the boy was, seemingly, extremely introverted, but this was ridiculous! Uzumaki never seemed to notice, nor care, of anything entering the training site while he was using it, and it pissed Sasuke off to no end to be ignored like that.

But then, he reminded himself, that was just the way that Uzumaki was. Hyperfocus is not always a bad thing, as they say, annoying as it was. Whenever he actually spoke to Uzumaki, he could tell that despite the boy did not stop his training for even a second, his ears were always open to whatever Sasuke had to say, and considering Uzumaki ignored anything but the important information even from the teachers, this was an ego boost like no other.

"Do you want to spar?" Sasuke asked, tentatively. He did not know if Uzumaki found sparring with him pointless, given that every spar they'd had in class had always gone the same way, often a tremendously one-sided victory in Uzumaki's favor.

The sheer strength and pain resistance built from hours upon hours of training had created a vast gulf between Uzumaki and a normal academy student, but Sasuke was no normal student. Sasuke adapted faster and better than any of his classmates could ever hope to. Whereas Uzumaki dispatched just about anyone in two to three moves at the most, Sasuke had gotten used to it.

He had gotten used to the fact that Uzumaki never attacked first. It wasn't because Uzumaki wanted to hold back and prepare a strategy to deal with his opponents. He didn't need to. Uzumaki never attacked before he was attacked first and while Sasuke wanted to know where this fixation came from, he knew better than to outright ask the one who would never answer.

First he'd have to earn the blond's trust.

Seeing the blond seemingly think it over for a few seconds, enough to let him have an internal monologue, the Uchiha thought out his battle plan. Uzumaki may not need one, but he certainly did. Seeing the blond's nod, Sasuke jumped backward, putting some distance and landing in the soft grass not too far away from the other batch of training dummies.

Uzumaki's first attack was always a counterattack, as a result of that, but there were things he could not counter. Sasuke's strategy relied on opening the fight with a ranged attack, so he grabbed one of his blunted kunai (he'd taken to carrying them everywhere, apparently it helped get used to the weight and to the position they'd be in) from the pouch in his right leg and with technique worthy of a genin let it fly towards his target, who caught it with two of his fingers just an inch away from his forehead.

Before the blond could discard it, Sasuke had rushed forward and bent low, dodging under the rather predictable backhanded throw that Uzumaki used to return the kunai, and then spinning around on his own axis to try to sweep the blond's legs from under him.

The blond hopped into the air and Sasuke nearly yelped when he saw the sandal mark on the floor. Hadn't he decided to get his leg out of the way quicker, his ankle would probably have been reduced to paste by the comeback stomp. Completing his spin, Sasuke used his momentum to deliver a staggering blow, the first blow he'd ever landed, to Uzumaki's side.

There was no ooph. There was no sign of pain. There was nothing. Uzumaki looked as if nothing had happened, even if his next attack had been interrupted and his muscles had tensed to prevent the damage to his insides. The reaction never reached the blond's face.

Remaining unfazed at Sasuke's shocked face, Uzumaki countered the attack with a simple straight to the face that Sasuke blocked… Only to find out that was the entire purpose of the move. With one arm overextended and the other blocking the face, Uzumaki's leg was free to snap forward and send Sasuke flying away.

Landing on a heap, the Uchiha groaned his pain out loud. "Okay… note to self… Less gawky more fighty…" He mumbled to himself as he stood up, nursing his much abused abdominal muscles (that still hadn't formed, dammit!) and offering Uzumaki an apologetic frown. "I'm still not up to snuff, but soon I'll be able to beat you."

Uzumaki said nothing, merely nodded and turned back to his training.

Acknowledgement. It had come several months into their relationship, but Uzumaki had finally acknowledged him as a rival and, at the time, Sasuke thought that it was the one thing he'd needed to surpass both his limitations and his brother.

* * *

Uzumaki was not, as Sasuke thought, a genius who held his knowledge back to not stand out. Uzumaki was an intelligent individual, but his lack of interest for pretty much anything other than the many ways in which one can kill people probably screwed his grades more than his unwillingness to actually display his knowledge.

Sasuke had learned that Uzumaki simply did not care and did not pay attention to anything but the lectures specific about Shinobi work, which were often given by Umino Iruka, who he had learned was the blond's only friend amongst the teachers, considering he was the one teacher who treated the small boy fairly.

Having become his unofficial protector, Sasuke had had to deal with a variety of bullies over the years, particularly one Inuzuka Kiba (who somehow hopped between friend and bully every other day, talk about bipolar), but mostly civilians who did not understand how exactly the dead last managed to get into the academy two years earlier and pass while they failed.

The academy put very little weight into academic pursuits and much more weight on the students' physical abilities in the early years, changing focus towards Ninjutsu in the last year. It made a certain sense, again, to hold back the knowledge of the more complicated forms of chakra manipulation to the ones who would actually be capable of using them.

Regardless, Uzumaki never cared, even if he was bullied. He did not acknowledge insults or compliments. He just stuck his face inside of his book and read, ignoring any but the teachers and the class' resident Uchiha.

One day, Sasuke, with his mother's prodding, realized that his relationship with Uzumaki was weird and couldn't really be called friendship, so he wanted to fix that. Uchiha Mikoto, Sasuke's mother, had suggested he invite the boy for dinner.

So Sasuke stuck around the academy, since that particular day, like many of the week, Uzumaki had been placed on detention for no real reason other than his presence annoying the teachers. Sasuke had to admit, Uzumaki was tremendously irritating at times, but this was ridiculous.

Deciding that he didn't want to wait, he thought about sneaking Uzumaki out of the classroom. All he'd have to do is grab him and just drag him away. Uzumaki wouldn't protest or say anything, and it was for his own good, anyway.

He did not expect, however, to hear anything coming from the classroom. "Hm… How are you, Naruto-kun?" Asked a rather old, weary and tired voice. Anyone could have recognized it. That voice made the most valiant of man think twice. That voice struck fear into the hearts of men. That was the voice of the God Of Shinobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

There was no response. Sasuke hadn't expected one.

"That's nice." The Hokage said, his tone more than a bit amused. Sasuke peeked through the door that separated the classroom from the hall, opening it around the width of his pinky, and what he saw shocked him. The Sandaime Hokage had one hand on top of his blond friend's head and was ruffling his hair affectionately, like a grandfather would to his grandson. "I've heard you made a friend." The old man said.

Uzumaki nodded, his book closed and laid to rest on the desk.

It kind of warmed Sasuke's heart to know that Uzumaki hadn't hesitated, even a second, to name him as one of his friends. "Hm… Try not to cause too much trouble for him, okay?" The grandfatherly smile on the Third's face left Sasuke dumbfounded.

Apparently, Uzumaki was actually far more important in the grand scheme of things than he'd thought. His curiosity about the blond enigma shot up at that point, because most adults seemed to find him to be an irritating little prick, which was weird. Wouldn't they be kissing the ass of the Hokage's favorite?

As interesting as it was, Sasuke knew that the moment the old man's focus left Uzumaki, he'd probably detect Sasuke in an instant, so he decided to go for the best bluff he could think of and simply barged in. "Uzumaki, are you still he- Oh. I apologize for interrupting." Sasuke said, upon intruding into the moment.

Uzumaki, like always, remained completely unfazed, while the old man let out a loud chuckle. "Boy, I've known you were there since the moment you stepped into the hall. Do take good care of Naruto-kun, he's… not very good at it." Sarutobi said, standing and walking up to Sasuke, ruffling his hair for good measure. "Now then, I have work to get back to and you have something to tell Naruto-kun, I presume."

Sasuke blinked, seeing the wink the old man threw at him. Was that, maybe, the Hokage approving of his friendship with the blond boy? It seemed the old man was fairly protective of the blond, if he had actually met in person with him. The Hokage rarely, if ever, left the office.

Uzumaki just kept getting more interesting with each turn…

* * *

Uzumaki might be by far the greatest when it came to practical fighting, but Sasuke was leaps and bounds ahead of him in practically everything else. In fact, Uzumaki somehow managed to be the dead last. It was actually odd, considering that despite his rather horrendous Chakra Control, Uzumaki could manage the Kawarimi perfectly and his henge…

His henge had transcended the boundaries of the simple illusory technique and somehow become a complete transformation. Apparently, nobody had told Uzumaki that the henge is not supposed to be physical and, given that what he reads is better left unsaid, he'd gone and made up his own version after the standard henge failed him utterly.

The bunshin was a lost cause, however. Uzumaki could not manipulate so little chakra at once. It was simply impossible for him. The Bunshin is the least chakra intensive technique out there, consuming even less than taking a few vertical steps would. Haruno Sakura, the rather pitiful Kunoichi Of The Year, could manage to create two dozen bunshin with ease.

Given that Sasuke had just obtained his headband for doing that exact same jutsu, it seemed that the test was tailored to fail Uzumaki, since failure in two of the three tests meant automatic failure. Uzumaki would no doubt get top marks in Taijutsu and fail utterly at the written portion of the exam. Had the jutsu to test been anything other than the bunshin or the Kawarimi, he'd have passed Ninjutsu with flying colors…

… But with the bunshin?

He was bound for failure, no doubt.

Sasuke hadn't known he'd been holding his breath until Uzumaki came walking out with a forehead protector replacing his usual headband. He smiled at the tiny newly minted genin, even if he'd passed just barely, he had. After all, Sasuke's rival could not be a failure, right?

* * *

"Team 7 will be… Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke…"

Sasuke winced, hearing the high pitched scream coming from his elated self proclaimed number 1 fangirl, and locked his eyes on the teacher.

"TAKE THAT, INO-PIG! True love conquers all!"

Shallow, fan girlish love is not true love, Sasuke wanted to say. But he kept quiet because he knew she'd ignore it like she had ignored just about every other stinking time he'd told his fangirls that he was much more interested in an actual Kunoichi than in the useless Kunoichi.

"… And Uzumaki Naruto, under Hatake Kakashi."

The blond merely turned to Sasuke.

Sasuke shrugged and the blond turned back to the chalkboard. He did, however, pull out a book with a blond man on old timey chunin armor and a rather confident smirk on his face from one of his pockets. He did not remove his eyes from the book, however, and simply tossed the smaller book towards Sasuke. Sasuke raised one eyebrow and caught it.

Three hours later, while Sakura was trying to get either of her teammates to talk to her instead of focusing on their respective books, Hatake Kakashi walked through the door. "Yo." He said, waving to them. He got completely ignored by the blond and while the pink haired girl yelled at him for being late, Sasuke merely sent him a blank look that didn't really express any irritation.

After all, Sasuke had been rather entertained these past few hours, getting through the story of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi.

"My first impression of you? You're all so bland I can't even hate you guys." Stated the rather colorful silver haired Shinobi, who seemed at best unimpressed with his team.

* * *

At the rooftop, Kakashi sighed when he noticed that while the quiet blond and the Uchiha had gotten to the roof in his exact specification, the pinkette had taken an entire minute above the limit and came in looking quite exhausted. He'd have to work on that, if they came anywhere near close to passing, anyway.

"So… Now that you're all here, how about introducing yourselves? Pinky, you go first." Kakashi said.

Pinky caught her breath, then seemed at a loss of what to do.

"You know, your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, favorite volume of Icha Icha, those things." Kakashi said, waving his hand, already recognizing the huge problem she had with her inability to think on her own and overreliance on authority figures providing her with direct orders. That was the symptom of a Shinobi who would never progress past genin and he would fix it ASAP.

"Oh… Well, I'm Haruno Sakura, and what I like… I mean the person that I like is…" She blushed and looked at the Uchiha, who completely ignored that and forcefully averted his attention away from her.

Kakashi noted it would most likely cause continued problems in the team dynamic. Sakura, it seemed, had the most problems he'd have to work with, even if they were all minor problems that he could solve with relative ease.

"And I dislike Naruto-baka!" The blond, meanwhile, didn't even seem to register the obvious attack on his person, which only infuriated Sakura further. However, she seemed to regain her calm under Kakashi's bored gaze. "My hobbies are reading and studying…" a confession that caused Sasuke to snort. It was a wonder that she disliked Naruto so much simply for reading all the time if she knew the joys of reading herself. "And my dream is…" She looked at Sasuke and blushed bright red.

Kakashi resisted the urge to facepalm, Sasuke did facepalm and Naruto did… absolutely nothing.

She then seemed confused. "What's Icha Icha?" she asked. Both the Uchiha and Kakashi looked at her with odd expressions in their faces.

"Okay, Duckie, your turn." Kakashi commanded, causing Sasuke to frown at him.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like training and tomatoes and dislike those who don't take their training seriously." He sent a meaningful glance at Sakura, but she merely interpreted it as praise and acted more than a bit proud of said fact, blushing and smiling. "My dream is to surpass my elder brother and become the leader of the Military Police." Then he seemed thoughtful. "I also haven't read Icha Icha." He at least seemed to know what Icha Icha was.

That was an improvement, Kakashi summarized.

"Okay, blondie, your turn now."

Naruto looked at him with a deadpan expression on his face over the edge of his book.

"It's an order." Kakashi said, a tad more forcefully.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Sasuke was stunned. It was the first time he'd ever heard Uzumaki's voice. It was… ridiculously soft. It was odd, considering just how strong Sasuke knew him to be. Then again, he was tiny, thin and fragile looking, yet was far stronger than one would expect even from a Shinobi.

Sasuke guessed that this was just even more proof that Uzumaki was perhaps one of the most perfect Shinobi he could think of. He was as threatening as… well, an underfed ten year old boy. The fact that he also somehow managed to make his mother forget about her Shinobi training just to go 'Kawaii!' and almost choke him on her breast made him an even more effective Shinobi.

Even Sasuke could notice that Uzumaki was adorable at times, given how wonderfully naïve he seemed to be of anything that did not involve killing people.

" I like training. My hobby is training. My dream… is becoming Hokage." The blond said, his voice still as soft and low key as ever. It had managed to stun all three of them into silence. Sakura, after all, hadn't ever heard so much as a grunt from Uzumaki and Sasuke imagined that Kakashi was more surprised about a lack of mentioned dislikes. "My favorite is… Blitz Tactics…"

Kakashi actually smiled under his mask and ruffled the blond's hair, act which had no reaction from the blond whatsoever. "You've got good taste, then." He said, more than a tad cheerful. He grew even more cheerful, however, when he stood up and looked ready to Shunshin away. "Okay, then, you guys should get ready. Be on Training Ground Three tomorrow at five sharp for your real genin test."

Sakura gasped. "But we've already had a genin test!"

Kakashi gave them an odd eye-smile. "I'm a tad harsher with my test than the academy. After all, nobody has ever passed it!" He said, leaning down. "And do you want to know a secret?" He said in a conspirator's tone. "I don't think any of you will pass, either!" he said. "I recommend you don't eat breakfast, you might just puke it out!" with that, he was gone in a flash of smoke and leaves.

And then, it had been official. At least in Sasuke's mind.

There was, after all, no chance he'd fail that test!

* * *

Different events:

The attack of the Kyuubi happened two years later than it did in canon, because Kushina did not get pregnant until two years after she did in canon. The date, funnily enough, is the exact same except for the year. October 10.

There was no attempt at kidnapping Hinata, since security after the attack was on full alert and the Kumo delegation deemed the mission too high risk to take. As a result, there are actually fairly decent relations between Kumo and Konoha and Hinata does not have the self confidence of a sponge. Since Hizashi didn't die for the Main Branch, Neji is not a colossal prick, even though he still doesn't like the main branch for obvious reasons.

The Uchiha Clan was never wiped out because the Uchiha who released the Kyuubi was caught and killed by Minato in that very night before he sealed the Kyuubi within Naruto. Yes, Obito died.

Anything other than that would be spoiling something or limiting my abilities to screw with the plot later on, and I don't wanna rely on dumb retcons, so... That's all you're getting.


	2. Foundations Of A Legend

Hn hn hn! Thank y'all, all those who cared enough to review this fic and tell me they liked it.

Even if I have an epically small amount of viewers (just about 250 people read this fic, and only 7 of those cared enough to leave a review), what's important is that you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

So... If you like it, do tell me why.

If you don't like it, do tell me why. Learning why I suck can help me improve on the areas I suck in.

* * *

Sakura thought that Sasuke was the greatest ninja since the Yondaime and thus his chances of passing were close to a hundred percent. It never occurred to her, however, that Sasuke had yet to defeat or even put Uzumaki on the ropes, and while Sasuke had closed in the distance, the sheer physical difference between the boy two years her junior had made victory close to impossible.

What she didn't know was her own chances of passing. She might be the Kunoichi of the Year, but she had never defeated one of the boys in a spar. Even those on the lower range of grades had found her easy to defeat. Sakura had always taken comfort in that none of the girls could beat her in pretty much anything.

Yet now, watching how Uzumaki and Sasuke went through their morning exercises… she felt inadequate. Woefully inadequate. Uzumaki was a monster, plain and simple. It did not matter what Sasuke did, how complex and creative the tactics he used were or how fast Sasuke executed them.

Uzumaki was so ridiculously fast that Sasuke could only land glancing blows at best and so strong that even when Sasuke landed a full blow, they were shrugged off with ease. Sakura noticed that Uzumaki's body was covered in bandages, and almost immediately assumed they were injuries from training too hard.

She'd always thought Uzumaki never trained or studied for anything. All he read was stupid fantasy stories and while he did the exercises the teachers ordered him to do, so did Sakura. Then again, she herself didn't train outside the academy. She had, however, on occasion followed Sasuke after class to watch him train until he started disappearing into the city.

Probably had noticed them and did not like being watched. Understanding his wishes, Sakura had stopped looking for him.

Maybe… they trained together? Sasuke had been moderately friendly to the blond since their second year, ever since he'd defended the boy from the bullies that somehow managed to get away with anything they did to him. The boy almost never was physically touched, since it was hard to get a hold of him to beat him up, but he did get just about any other form of abuse thrown his way. Then again, seeing Uzumaki now, it was probably for the best they never got the chance to try physical abuse.

Whilst Sakura's parents had told her to stay away from him because he was a troublemaker, she didn't understand how, or why, Uzumaki had earned such a bad rep with the adults. Was it simply the fact that he was an easy target?

She didn't like thinking about it, but she had time to ponder, since it had been only an hour so far and if her suspicions were correct the asshole that was their teacher would come in three hours late again. Therefore, she had fallen into analyzing both her own behavior and her dedication to her training.

Sasuke never made it a secret that he had a rather… strong dislike towards his fangirls. In fact, the only females he ever talked to where mostly adults and the few girls in class who did not belong to his fanclub (and even then they'd ended up harassed by said club because they had the attention of the class' most popular boy). Sakura had always thought she was exempted from that, as she was the best of her peers…

… Until that morning. The one thing that Sasuke said to her was that she was as annoying, or perhaps more annoying, than the rest and that if she wanted to, at the very least, be his friend, she should try to start working hard at being a ninja. Then she had asked why he paid attention to the dead last, who was a no-name orphan and a crappy ninja to boot.

Sasuke had said it clean and plainly. "Uzumaki is ten times the ninja you will ever be." He had said. No explanation, no justification.

And seeing their training… She was starting to believe it. Uzumaki was better than Sasuke. Plain and simple.

Sakura had had a revelation at that point. Since it was clear that she was not a worthy ninja in Sasuke's eyes, at the very least, she'd train hard and show him that she could be as good as him. That was the only way to his heart. Then again, she didn't want to end up over muscled and ugly…

Sakura's thoughts however, were stopped by a particularly harsh thud and the sound of Sasuke groaning out loud. Her brain yelled at her to go for the ingrained reaction, namely, chewing out Uzumaki for hurting Sasuke, particularly before an important exam but… This was what it meant to train as a Shinobi. You got hurt and you had to deal with the pain.

She saw Sasuke's determined expression as he stood up, even if he seemed a tad dazed from the harsh landing. Even though Uzumaki seemed to remain as unexpressive as always, the fact that the blond remained standing in what Sakura deemed his ready position (hands vaguely raised and legs slightly apart from each other) told her that the fight was nowhere near over.

What kind of training did either of them undergo to get right back up and continue fighting after they were knocked down? Weren't the friendly spars done until someone hit the floor? Her brain supplied the answer. Those spars were made so with the intent of them not hurting themselves. While it prevented injury, it also limited their growth as ninja.

Pain was the best motivator, that much she knew, and it forced you to get better on the fly lest you suffer more.

Even so, she actually stood up from the comfortable position she'd found against a tree and actually walked into the spar. "If you keep that up, you'll be too tired and hurt when Kakashi-sensei comes." She said, looking at Sasuke expectantly.

The Uchiha took a deep breath and looked at Uzumaki. While both had a fine layer of sweat covering their exposed skin, Uzumaki had yet to break his breathing rhythm. His stamina was something Sasuke couldn't ever quite match.

Ultimately, Sasuke nodded to Sakura and sat down on the soft grass, shortly thereafter beginning to stretch to get rid of the kinks before they formed. This was, after all, merely a warm up routine compared to what Uzumaki usually put himself through and what Sasuke had been approaching over the last year.

Uzumaki merely pulled out a book and began to read, as usual, except he was doing his own stretches while he did. It was… weird. Sasuke smiled fondly at the sight, finishing his stretches and laying down to take a rest. He did not push Sakura away immediately. They were a team and he might as well give her a couple chances to get over her fangirl complex.

He'd made his best attempt at explaining to her how much she sucked as a Kunoichi in his eyes. Maybe it'd give her the revelation she needed.

"Uh… Sasuke-kun…" Or maybe not, given the blush on her features. Then again, normally It'd be accompanied by a vaguely content smile. This time, her expression seemed more of… embarrassment? "I'm sorry for acting like a complete fangirl." She said, hanging her head.

Sasuke raised one eyebrow and looked at Sakura questioningly. "Sakura-san." Sasuke began, sounding as polite as he always did to the teachers. The formality was kind of odd, considering that Sasuke offered no politeness or formality to those he considered beneath him, namely, fangirls and useless ninja. "Words are easily spoken. Actions speak louder than a thousand words." Sasuke explained.

Then he looked at Uzumaki. Sakura understood what he meant. Uzumaki had demonstrated with his actions far more than Sakura had ever said with her words. Whereas Sakura's abilities on paper were far superior and more versatile than Uzumaki's, in practice Uzumaki would beat her ten times out of ten.

"If you want to earn my respect… then train. Train hard. If my suspicions are correct, Hatake will show up three hours late to our every meeting and in that time… In that time we will train on our own. Uzumaki will train regardless of what we do, but I think he likes the company." Sasuke said, smiling, standing up and cracking his neck. "For now… what do you say we do a bit of light exercise? It will help you loosen up and warm up so you can be ready for whatever Hatake has planned."

Sakura offered Sasuke her best smile. "Of course, Sasuke-kun… If you think it will help…" She said, a tad shier than she'd intended it to come out. She could not deny that Sasuke had a pretty smile. It was so rare to see one directed her way. In fact, Sasuke rarely smiled at all in the academy, and she understood why. He found Fangirls unnaturally annoying and their mere presence annoyed him into being a perpetual frowner.

Sasuke nodded.

Uzumaki seemed to lift his head only barely from his book to shoot a glance that Sasuke could not decipher at them. However, as always, Uzumaki merely returned to his book and to ignoring the world again for what seemed like an entire half hour until he stood up.

He walked up to Sakura and looked down at her. Sakura looked up, confused at what had merited Uzumaki's sudden interest in her, so she turned to Sasuke and saw him smiling. Uzumaki seemed to be waiting for something, though she couldn't tell what.

"I was going to spar with you… but he wants to do it himself." Sasuke said. Well, it seemed like that was what Uzumaki wanted. "Don't worry, while it doesn't look like it, he does know how to hold back, some times."

Sakura was a little afraid of the ten year old boy. Just about nobody was made to spar with him for the simple fact that only those with top grades in Taijutsu, namely the class' resident Hyuuga, Inuzuka and Uchiha, could remain in the same ring with him for more than thirty seconds, and even then, nobody had lasted upwards of a minute against him.

Yet, even as Sakura took up a shaky position, she could see Uzumaki analyzing her. She was a tad insulted when he shook his head. The boy then changed his stance to one resembling Sakura's.

She turned her face to look at Sasuke, who was humming thoughtfully. He approached her and, much to Sakura's mortification, actually moved her arms and legs, touching her, to different positions. She noticed that Sasuke seemed to be sneaking glances to the entirety of her body as he did, which caused an even bigger blush to sprout on her.

"There?" He asked, turning towards Uzumaki, who nodded. "Try to get used to that stance, Sakura. You're not built to be a physical powerhouse, so that means you will need to rely on superior skill and agility…"

As the Uchiha continued his explanation, Sakura could see Uzumaki nodding, as if to affirm Sasuke's words. Maybe, just maybe, Uzumaki wasn't as bad as she thought he was, if he at least cared enough to give her pointers on her Taijutsu.

Then again, he did not seem apologetic at all whenever he corrected her. She had to take pointers from both. While she knew how to throw a proper punch and the chains and kata that the academy had taught her, she didn't know very much about how to connect her moves together, or how to improvise whenever an opponent countered the basic academy style.

At the very least, when she got used enough to the stance, she noticed that it continued to get easier and easier to, as Sasuke had put it, improvise with different movements. Sasuke had explained to her that it was MUCH easier to defeat someone if you caught them unaware with an odd, unusual move that surprised them.

Uzumaki's entire style relied on doing things that the opponent wouldn't expect and dominating the fight on a technical level, Sasuke's own style was similar, but while Uzumaki was all about countering attacks, Sasuke's relied on preventing the opponent from attacking in the first place, which eliminated the major weakness of the interceptor fist, which was that a faster opponent made it pretty much useless.

They didn't know where Sakura's development would take her, but both she and Sasuke had talked and discussed long and hard about what kind of style would fit Sakura the most. She seemed to go for a more straightforward approach than either of her male teammates and, while her diet had ruined her physical development at the moment, there was nothing that prevented Sakura from getting better with a proper diet and exercise.

So her being a power-based fighter might make up for her lack of real skill or talent in the art of Taijutsu, even if it'd require more training.

Sakura had agreed to stop dieting and to take her exercises seriously, which had made Sasuke at least begin to consider her as a Kunoichi in training. After all, she could get better, and she would get better, if he helped her.

Maybe he'd even make Sakura Haruno into a competent kunoichi that would one day make it to Jounin. Would certainly be a challenge, but she seemed to have the will to improve.

So an Uchiha, a Haruno and an Uzumaki meet a Hatake…

… And nobody reacts to his presence. Sakura and Sasuke were resting from their light work out, having done only enough to keep their bodies warm since the time limit for what they expected Hatake to show up was approaching.

Uzumaki completely ignored the jounin as he looked at his team with a weird glint in his eye. "Rise and shine, my cute little maybe students! Time to begin the exam. " he called out cheerfully.

Sasuke moved to a sitting position and made a show of yawning rather exaggeratedly. Uzumaki merely rose to his feet and walked until he was right next to the other two as they stood up. "Okay, Sensei… we're ready."

"That's good." Kakashi said, nodding to the three. Then he pulled out an alarm clock from god knows where. "This is set for noon." He said, walking past them and setting it against the cold stone of the monument that dominated the training ground. He also placed a pair of boxed lunches at either side of it.

This caused both Sakura and Sasuke to look at him with apprehension in their faces. He simply waved a pair of silver bells in front of them. "The exam is simple. All you have to do is take one of the bells for yourself. Whoever has a bell, passes. Whoever doesn't, gets sent back. Furthermore, whoever doesn't have a bell will be tied to one of the training posts over there and forced to watch while everyone else eats." With a hand gesture, he indicated towards the three training posts that were not too distant to the monument itself. "Questions?"

"Uhm… Sensei, there are only two bells…" Sakura said. "This means that only two of us can pass…" She had gone bone white. Because she knew who would pass and who wouldn't. She had absolutely no chance and there was no doubt that if it came down to choose between them or her, both Sasuke and Uzumaki would choose each other.

"Yep!" Kakashi called out, still cheerful as ever. "I warn you, you won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill!" He said. Beginning to walk away from them without a care in the world, he looked at them over his shoulder without a care in the world. "Okay… begin!"

Hatake saw the pinkette and the raven haired Uchiha disappear into the woods, although he could still see very clearly where they'd gone to. Sakura's hair poked out of the bush she'd hidden in and Sasuke had made too much noise when he dived into the woods.

The blond, meanwhile, sat down and continued reading his book like nothing had happened. This caused a bead of sweat to run down Kakashi's head. Clearly, Uzumaki was nothing like he'd expected him to be. The stereotypical silent one was usually the best of the bunch abilities-wise though they never were good at teamwork and usually failed this test epically.

Kakashi actually walked next to him, looked him over and, seeing his complete and utter lack of interest towards the test, decided to check on what the boy was reading. Much to his surprise, it was as a matter of fact the first volume of the Icha Icha Tactics series, a spin-off of the original paradise where the protagonist, now dubbed the Pervy Shinobi, decided to charm the women in power everywhere to take over the world after discovering a jutsu that would let him have a certain degree of control over their actions.

It was a nice story and the hero was too much of a nice person to actually force the girls to see things his way, instead hoping to convince them to aid willingly. Kakashi blinked upon noticing that he'd actually sat down and begun to read the story himself after pulling out his copy. Apparently, it was just ridiculous coincidence that he happened to be carrying that same book.

Hadn't Hatake Kakashi been as awesome as he was, he might not have heard the sound of two preteens' faces hitting the floor. It was such fun to mess with his genin's expectations. "You're gonna fail if you don't do anything, you know." Kakashi said, conversationally.

The blond did and said absolutely nothing to show he had reacted to the statement, instead, he continued reading like nothing had happened.

Can't say he didn't try to motivate the genin into passing. Oh well, he was getting to the good parts, where the main character seduced his first victim, disguising his activities as a training mission.

Without missing a beat, Kakashi batted away the kunai rushing straight at his face with the plate on the back of his glove. "You're gonna have to do better than that." Kakashi announced, standing up without even stretching his legs. "Lesson one… Taijutsu. I will teach you guys about it." He said, looking straight at where the Kunai had come from, easily seeing a few strands of Sakura's hair and some out of place, broken branches near Sasuke's hiding spot.

Sasuke grunted and rushed forward. He knew there was no way he'd defeat a jounin in Taijutsu, but even so, he had to try. Uzumaki was not going to help. That much was clear. It seemed as if Uzumaki had absolutely no interest whatsoever in Hatake or anything involving him. Even if he had no doubt Uzumaki would have been a boon…

Well, he'd thought about giving Sakura a chance, and what better way to do it than by giving her a chance to prove that she intended to get better by putting in some effort?

He engaged Hatake and went for distracting attacks. Moves that were easily predictable and which Hatake had no issue in parrying, blocking or outright dodging. But that was okay. Sakura should have taken her cue by now.

But it seemed she remained transfixed in her hiding spot. Sasuke frowned. However, he didn't relent, steadily leading Kakashi, who so far seemed to be bored in dodging all of his attacks and hadn't done anything to indicate he'd caught up to Sasuke's scheme, into the forested area where he'd have a harder time moving about.

Then, he sprung the trap he'd been preparing. He slammed his hands together and summoned four clones to distract Kakashi, actually taking a moment to scramble and lose himself amidst the clones. He had to hurry, because he doubted Kakashi had actually fallen for the ruse and was just humoring him.

His hands went into his kunai pouches at each leg and he grabbed two special kunai he'd prepared beforehand. Knowing that something like this would probably come, information obtained from Itachi in exchange for a bag of candy, he had decided he'd focus on immobilizing Kakashi. Originally, Uzumaki would've been helping him in this endeavor and he was certain that the small blond would've been an absolute nightmare to deal with for the jounin up close, but it seemed Naruto wasn't intent on graduating.

He had to have a plan, but Sasuke couldn't wait. He needed to execute his first. Uzumaki was still his rival and he'd be damned before he let him outdo him at this!

Kakashi saw the two Kunai coming, knew that their paths would cross right where his chest was and that all he needed to do to stop them from doing so was simply batting them away. He'd never been fooled by the clones and had kept his visible eye on the young Uchiha, seeing what he tried to do.

Instead of blocking the two kunai, however, he did the next best thing and simply took two steps back, seeing the Kunai fly off range…

… which was exactly what Sasuke expected him to do. Hatake seemed to enjoy displaying his superiority over his genin and he'd take the chances to do so. Dodging something was always harder than blocking or parrying, and Kakashi was more than capable of dodging such an attack.

Pushing chakra through the wires that Sasuke still held in his outstretched hands to insure a faster response, the Uchiha tugged on and changed the direction of the two Kunai, so that instead of flying past Hatake, they circled around him, wrapping him on razor sharp ninja wire as they did. The Uchiha smirked and utilized the most basic exercise for his elemental affinity he knew of: Channeling electricity through a metallic object.

Kakashi looked surprised for a full second, before he burst into smoke and a charred log. Sasuke grunted.

"That was nice. It seems you're leagues above your classmates in both Taijutsu and Ninjutsu." Kakashi said, from his perch sitting on a tree. "You're still a genin, though." He said, shrugging.

Sasuke shot a Kunai at Kakashi and when it hit him, he again dispersed into smoke, leaving nothing behind this time. The fact that the clone didn't even try to dodge the attack or block it in any way meant that it probably couldn't. This kunai had met no resistance whatsoever.

Sasuke did not stick around to let Kakashi have a chance at payback, however. This had made it evident that he could not handle Kakashi on his own. Therefore, he needed to find Sakura. She hadn't acted the first time, probably believing he wanted to face Kakashi on his own.

What kind of idiot bets on the odds of a genin against a jounin!?

He jumped through the woods, a burst of chakra heralding his every leap. Kakashi had been correct in that he'd been leaps and bounds ahead of the curve. He had the resources of the Uchiha clan behind him and since Itachi had been quite obvious in his intention to remain in ANBU rather than go back to the police force, Sasuke had been groomed to take over his father's place.

However, if Hatake was thinking that Sasuke was a stuck up brat because of it, the jounin would have a nasty surprise in his near future. Neither Itachi, Mikoto nor Fugaku, after all, tolerated a spoiled brat who couldn't work on a team because of an inability to see past his own ego.

He found Sakura standing, horrified, next to a tree, looking at an empty spot as if it contained the object of her nightmares… And Hatake creeping up behind her. Acting quickly, he attacked Hatake with one of his remaining Kunai (he'd have to remember to go over the training field to recover the ones he'd used already) and dived in behind Sakura, protecting her from whatever it was that Kakashi had planned for her.

"Eh!? Sasuke-kun!?" She nearly shrieked. "Then it was just…"

"Genjutsu." Hatake cleared up. "The most underestimated Shinobi art." He explained.

"Sakura." Sasuke said, palming a Kunai on his right hand and passing her one with his left. He was speaking lowly, using his right hand to hide his lips from view as he pushed Sakura back with his body, leaning away from the spot he'd heard Hatake's voice coming from. "I will distract him. Go for the bells." He said, feeling her nod against his back. She still hadn't turned around.

"Boo!" Hatake yelled, appearing right next to the genin standing back to back in the middle of the clearing. This startled them enough to separate and, true to his word, Sasuke immediately engaged the jounin, this time going full out and actually forcing him to try and keep him distracted.

Again, Hatake seemed to have very little to no trouble fending off his efforts, but regardless, Sasuke continued his assault, though he was quickly exhausting his personal library of movements and he'd quickly have to rely on the ones he'd learned from Uzumaki if he wanted to keep the man distracted. He was probably used to fighting just about anything from Konoha. The variations in Sasuke's own Interceptor Fist briefly gave the silver haired Shinobi pause, but he adapted to them just as easily as Sasuke shifted through forms.

It made him have a degree of respect for the man. That was the sheer ability that one needs to become a true Shinobi. Not just repeat the moves practiced one thousand times, but to adapt and learn new ways to defend yourself on the fly.

If only Sasuke knew a Raiton jutsu that he could use in melee range, this fight might have been in his favor. Regardless, he found out just how scarily effective Uzumaki's tactic of reckless fighting was. Uzumaki's movements, stances and attacks were filled to the brim with holes that were easy to exploit, and that was the whole point of the style.

Uzumaki knew where the juiciest holes were and his defense was based on simply waiting for the opponent to go for these and then execute the appropriate counterattack or, if the opponent caught up to that, simply utilize a move that left a hole too juicy not to exploit that was yet another trap.

Then again, Uzumaki was surprisingly limber and agile, so the more complex combos that made use of said advantage were closed off to Sasuke's less flexible body. Still, as he sidestepped one of Hatake's half assed punches, this one heading towards his face, Sasuke grabbed the hand and gave a mighty pull, which the jounin anticipated and jumped with.

A simple tactic so that instead of being smashed against the ground, he was thrown a good distance away from melee range and remained completely unharmed, somersaulting so he'd land on his feet.

Sasuke smirked, keeping his head down so Kakashi didn't see it.

Hatake had dodged, yes, but he had also miscalculated when he'd assumed that his only opponent was Sasuke. Sakura had taken the chance when her sensei lowered his guard and jumped at Kakashi, slamming her shoulder against his stomach and propelling him away with enough force to slam against a tree.

"That was a nice display of teamwork." Hatake commended them, landing on his knees on the floor and patting his sash, where he'd tied the bells earlier. There was a loud, distant ringing sound. "And just in time, too…"

"Yes!" Sakura yelled, waving the twin silver bells in the air, making them jingle as she did. "We passed, Sasuke-kun!" She cried in her happiness, actually jumping and glomping the Uchiha, who merely looked at her with one raised eyebrow. She blushed in embarrassment and let go, smiling apologetically and looking sheepish.

"Yes, yes, you passed." Kakashi said, looking specifically at Sakura. "However, since Uchiha and Uzumaki failed to get a bell by the time limit, they both fail."

This caused Sakura's jaw to fail. "W-Wait! There are two bells! Sasuke-kun did most of the work, I just took them…" She said, actually passing one of the bells to Sasuke. "And he has one, too!"

"That makes sense, I guess." Kakashi said, shrugging. "Anyway, Uzumaki still fails, because he didn't do anything." He announced.

Sasuke frowned. Had Uzumaki really intended to fail? Reading his intentions, at all, was something rather complicated. In fact, Sasuke never quite knew what exactly Uzumaki was thinking at any given time, but… he didn't seem the kind to graduate from the Shinobi academy just to fail his jounin's examination on purpose.

And there was something that was still bugging Sasuke since the last day. The first time he'd heard his voice, and all he'd said had been things that Sasuke already knew except for the last revelation. Uzumaki wanted to be Hokage. Well, it certainly didn't seem like it, since he did nothing to hint at that being his goal.

This was only one more piece of Uzumaki's weirdness. Why fail this test on purpose? Sasuke couldn't figure it out, even as he, Hatake and Sakura walked over to where Uzumaki was still reading.

When both he and Sakura sat down, Hatake looked intently at Uzumaki for a full minute. "Stand up." He ordered, which Uzumaki complied to without a word. "Stand against the post." He added, which, again, Uzumaki complied to without a word.

Hatake went to work on tying him up, being more than a tad harsh.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Hatake questioned, looking at the tied up blond with a critical eye. As was usual for the blond, there was no reaction. Shaking his head, Kakashi sat down with the genin. "Okay, guys, let's eat." He said, pulling his book from one of his pockets.

"But… sensei… will we really eat in front of Uzumaki-san?" Sakura said, sounding more than a tad conflicted about it. There was no doubt that Uzumaki had to be hungry, if he had heeded their sensei's warning and avoided breakfast.

Hatake offered her an eye-smile. "Uzumaki-san did nothing to help either of you and simply sat here reading his book. So, he gets to watch you guys eat while he gets nothing and later will be sent back to the academy!"

Sasuke sighed. "Isn't there any way he can pass?" He asked. He didn't know if it was concern for the one person who'd called him a friend and whom he considered a friend, but even so, he didn't feel right just leaving Uzumaki to the wolves.

Hatake seemed thoughtful. "I guess I can give him a makeup test…" He said, rubbing his chin. "But that test will be taken as a team. Which means that you will have to relinquish the bells and you have a chance of failing all over again."

This seemed to give the both of them pause. Sasuke actually glanced at Sakura, to gauge her reaction, seeing her hesitating, Sasuke sighed. "I accept those terms." He said, passing his bell over to the jounin, who didn't seem too concerned at the thought of having to give them a make up test.

Sakura looked thoughtful for a moment. "I accept those terms, too." She said, finally, looking at Hatake, who raised one eyebrow.

"Hm? I understand why duckie would, but why you? After all, you have no real reason to risk your passing for Uzumaki-san." The silver haired jounin spoke, eyeing the pinkette questioningly.

"Uzumaki-san… is a much better ninja than I am." Sakura had been wondering just exactly the blond had been thinking when he'd just outright refused to do anything in the test whatsoever. "So… it stands to reason that if Sasuke-kun and me passed this test, that the three of us together would pass the next one!"

"But only two of you can pass." Hatake stated, blinking and leaning back. "And you yourself admitted that they're both better than you, so… are you willing to take the chance that you might not pass?"

Sakura looked down and seemed thoughtful. She knew, for a fact, that if she chickened out now there was no way Sasuke would ever forgive her. At the very least, even if she didn't pass, she'd earn the Uchiha's respect and she would be able to try again, when she was actually worthy of passing and didn't have to rely on Sasuke to fight her battles for her.

Hatake hummed and accepted the bell that Sakura offered him.

"And what about you, Uzumaki? Are you willing to take this chance?" Hatake questioned.

Uzumaki remained silent for a few seconds, unmoving… Until he nodded.

"Congratulations, you all pass." Kakashi announced, smiling widely.

"What!?" Sakura called out, sounding more than a tad surprised.

"To tell you guys the truth, the whole point of this test was to see whether or not you could work as a team and it was quite obvious to me that you could, even before you began so… I had already passed you guys this morning to begin with. When you guys actually trained together." He explained.

"But… Then why did you try to break us apart, then?! If we hadn't taken the makeup test, Uzumaki-san would've failed and been sent back to the academy!" The pinkette said.

Hatake sighed. "Uzumaki-san noticed there were only two bells and chose to bite the bullet so you two could pass." The jounin explained, running a hand through his hair. "Am I correct?"

Uzumaki merely nodded, still tied up, though looking about as bored as ever.

"So…" Sakura swallowed. "Uzumaki-san sacrificed his chance to pass for me, then? Had he and Sasuke-kun tried to take the bells, they'd have probably succeeded much more easily… I had a lucky shot…"

Hatake shook his head. "The plan Sasuke executed was solid and would have worked on a chunin level opponent, which was the level I was fighting at." He explained. "I need you all to understand, however, that no matter how clever you are, you won't be able to face a superior opponent on your own. You will need your comrades. You have taken the steps in the right direction by sharing what you know and helping your teammates."

The silver haired jounin offered them an eye smile as they ran the words through them. "But… your orders pretty much forced us to abandon one member of the team so the rest could pass… If Uzumaki-san hadn't made the sacrifice and all three had worked together we would've had to fight amongst ourselves to see who got the bells." Sakura said. "I would've lost, no doubt."

"Uzumaki-san knows something very important. Sometimes, the success of a mission requires a sacrifice that not many are willing to make. This is a lesson you will learn with time and when maturity comes. He is a special case." Obviously. Sakura had never quite seen someone as weird as Uzumaki. Even Shino, the class' resident Aburame who was quiet and reserved, spoke when he needed to, while she was certain she'd only heard one sentence in her entire life come from Uzumaki's mouth. Not even a sound had been emitted by the silent blond. "But you two… you two learned something even more important than that today." Kakashi said, turning around and staring off into the horizon. "You, Sakura, in particular."

Sakura blushed in embarrassment. She didn't know what exactly her teacher was talking about, as she was certain that she had been the most pathetic out of the three and that she'd passed only because of her teammates, while Kakashi seemed to think otherwise.

"It's been said that those who don't follow the Shinobi rules are trash…" Kakashi said, his voice gaining a sad, almost nostalgic quality. "But those who abandon their comrades?" He said, turning around to see the confused stares of his three genin. It was odd to get a reaction from the blond, so he treasured every one of them. "They are worse than trash. Remember that."

Sasuke, off the corner of his eye, saw the smile on the blond's face. It was tiny, a mere curling on his lips. But it was still a sight to see. Sakura, as well, noticed it, since she had chosen to look at her teammates, unable to look at her sensei's tall figure, trying to gauge their reactions.

Only then did Sakura understand why Sasuke seemed so fond of the blond. That timid smile that threatened to break through his usual stoic demeanor… at that moment, Sakura felt like she could take on the world to protect that smile.

Without further ado, Hatake Kakashi declared Team 7 officially formed.

* * *

So...

Review? I need some reviews that actually require me to answer. I'm too used to writing lengthy author notes answering people's concerns!


	3. Tight Bonds

Here's to hoping y'all like this. As usual, thanks to all who care enough to leave me with a review.

So... D ranks!

* * *

Maybe, just maybe, Sasuke considered, graduating was overrated. So far, all that graduating had granted him was two pictures of his team. One was them in their team picture with him at the left side, with one of Kakashi's hands messing up his hair, offering the camera a confident smile, Uzumaki was to his right, not even having to lean down considering how tiny he was, despite Kakashi leaning over them, with his usual non-expression and a blushing and seemingly annoyed Sakura, who was busy trying to fend off the hand that threatened to mess up her hair.

That picture was nice.

The other, meanwhile, was one he didn't even know would be taken. In fact, he hadn't quite expected the reason for the picture in the first place. Namely, both his and Sakura's faces as they received their first D rank mission. Uzumaki, as was usual, didn't seem to react at all to the information, even if he'd actually lowered his book long enough to look at the Hokage and the chunin manning the mission desk.

The elder ninja had shared a good laugh at their indignation.

And why wouldn't they be pissed about getting a mission to weed an old man's garden? Sasuke had not trained his body as much as he had to weed peoples' gardens. No, Uchiha Sasuke was a born and bred warrior, dammit!

Even so, he had not uttered a single complaint. Instead, Sasuke just bent down and started pulling anything that seemed similar to the weeds that the old jackass wanted removed from his garden. He did it in a particularly vicious manner, taking his frustrations with them.

"Uhm… You should be more careful..." Sakura muttered, discreetly replanting a small, golden-colored flower that had been upturned from Sasuke's careless activities. Sasuke sighed and tried to offer an apology, but she just shook her head. "Teammates look out for each other." She said.

This left Sasuke impressed. Apparently, Sakura had taken their teacher's words to heart. Then again, the man HAD stated that Sakura had taken the lesson most seriously to begin with. That very morning, while they waited for their sensei to come, Sakura had come to him and Naruto and gone through with their morning exercises.

Sasuke did not exactly know when he'd started to actually respect and like Haruno Sakura as a person, but most assuredly, it had to be when she'd taken his verbal beating to heart and actually changed herself into an actually competent kunoichi, if a bit weakened from lack of proper upbringing.

He noticed her wince as she tugged on some weeds, and saw her cradling her wrist briefly, before continuing her conflict with the stubborn plantlife. Seeing this, Sasuke put his hand around their base and pulled harshly, removing a chunk of the soil along with the weeds. Whatever these things were, they were apparently rooted into the ground. Sasuke frowned and then turned towards Sakura. "If your arm still hurts, you should probably talk to Sensei."

Hatake might have made an impression on him yesterday, but Sasuke was still on the fence about having a teacher that showed up three hours late every day and simply took them on a mission without saying a word about training. Then again, it was their first day and maybe Hatake simply preferred to train in the afternoons.

Uzumaki seemed to have no trouble whatsoever in his methodical approach at pulling the weeds, which was odd. His arms had taken quite a beating from Sakura earlier that morning, since training with a moving target was always more effective than wailing on a stationary dummy, if a tad more painful.

The little blond might have been in pain for all that his team knew, he just refused to show it. It made Sasuke frown internally. That behavior wasn't healthy. Internalizing all of one's pain and refusing to seek outside help could turn one into a psychotic wreck. Itachi had come very close to breaking down when the tensions between his clan and the village ran high before the Sandaime defused the situation with a public display of trust in the Uchiha despite the famous traitor who'd used his sharingan to lead the Kyuubi into Konoha, although nobody had ever learned of his identity.

For all everyone knew, it might not have been an Uchiha to begin with, since the only proof was a sharingan that could have been stolen.

Itachi had almost snapped back then since he was the link that kept Sasuke's father and the Hokage connected and the pressure of being an ANBU captain at his age as well as the hope of both the Uchiha and the Hokage that the situation might be solved without bloodshed had not helped.

The night that Itachi had confessed everything to him and had cried for the first time since Sasuke had any memory to speak of was etched into his memories and he didn't want to see anyone break down like that ever again. Much less Uzumaki, who had no family who would hold him when he cried himself to sleep.

They continued with their efforts, weeding the garden, for an entire half hour before they were finally done. The man seemed to actually be cultivating the god damned weeds, which had Sasuke swearing that next time, he'd just Goukakyuu the entire garden and be done with it.

"That's good, team!" Kakashi called, appearing in a burst of speed in the perfect middle of the triangle that Team 7 had created. It was kind of eerie how good he was at falling into team formation or pulling a new formation out of his ass. "I've got confirmation from the client that the mission is complete!"

And Sasuke snorted at that. The client had been looking intently at their progress, directing a harsh stare at the youngest member of the team for most of that time. Sasuke did not know what it was about Uzumaki that irritated people so… well, except Uzumaki's demeanor. It kind of made him want to punch the blond at times, too, but even that would be easily discarded as a reason.

There were, after all, far more annoying ninja than Uzumaki. At the very least, the blond easily fell into the background and was easy to ignore, considering how he didn't call attention to himself at all.

Add one mystery to Uzumaki. Maybe his parents would know something about it? After all, they always seemed far too friendly towards Uzumaki, contrasting with the majority of the population of Konoha. "Finally…" Sakura said, wiping the sweat from her brow. The Land Of Fire was quite warm and the sun was unforgiving, even though afternoon seemed to approach quickly.

"Let's report the completed mission and then we'll be done for the day!"

Sasuke dearly hopped, as they regrouped, that Hatake had not meant there would be no training for the day. He was looking forward to getting training from a jounin, particularly one as impressive with his combat abilities as Hatake was said to be. Even if Sasuke had yet to see if he was worthy of his reputation, Hatake had proven to be, at the very least, worthy of his rank.

* * *

Sasuke hung his head, before a hand rose to cradle his face. He was sorely disappointed by Hatake's antics. He'd just said 'have fun' and disappeared. He'd given them no direction whatsoever and just told them that their duties were over for the day.

The young heir of the police force was not done with his training for the day. Not even close. Now he didn't have the academy cutting into his training time, so he had to make the best of it. Uzumaki didn't even miss a moment, almost immediately beginning to go through his usual series of warm up exercises.

Sasuke followed and, after a moment of hesitation, so did Sakura. Sasuke decided to slow down his pace, deciding to observe and gauge Sakura's stamina. After all, she herself didn't know her limits as she scarcely ever challenged them. He went through short series of varied exercises, the quick changes designed to never let any part of the body cool down for too long.

Ninja did not need large muscles and they were, in fact, a hindrance. Ninja needed a leaner body that was strong but supple and flexible that could withstand the continued abuse brought on by battles that could last as long as hours…

… Or all of two seconds.

One never knows.

Regardless, he almost immediately noticed that Sakura's stamina left much to be desired. She could not keep up with the rater slow pace that he went through his warm up at. This was not good. She might have the will to improve, but it'd take a lot of work to bring her up to snuff. Hell, even Sasuke himself wasn't up to par, but then again he used Uzumaki as a measuring stick and that guy trained religiously.

To the point that Sasuke could already see him running laps around the training ground, head stuck in his ever-present book. Somehow, he managed to read even more than their teacher, and all the guy ever did was read porn while he provided 'moral support' from the sidelines in today's mission.

It was probably Uzumaki's way of actually training himself to multitask. Reading and running while at the same time remaining aware of your surroundings enough not to trip on anything was actually a multi-layered exercise.

Or maybe Sasuke was just looking too hard into it while he waited for Sakura to regain her breath. She looked a little green. Probably not used to eating enough to fill her stomach. He sat in front of her as she rested and sighed. "Are you okay?" He asked.

She shook her head, looking sick.

"You'll get better eventually." He said, standing up and shaking his own head. "You're not used to it." The Uchiha explained.

"But… I'll never catch up to Uzumaki like this…" she said, looking at Uzumaki as he ran, back and forth, using very sharp turns instead of running in a circle. She supposed that it helped to change directions quickly but it didn't seem healthy to put such a load on your legs and then shift directions so quickly, a single bad movement could snap his bones.

Sasuke actually laughed and shook his head. Well, it was good to aim high, but maybe a tad too high. Uzumaki could only be described as a monster. A freaking monster that never got tired, never felt pain and never stopped. Sasuke had seen the guy pound the training posts to the point where he'd ripped the flesh off his own fists.

Come to think of it, he still did it. It just took him longer since Sasuke knew it'd happen and distracted him however he could before he could injure himself. That was food for thought. Uzumaki's zeal in training was both a boon and a curse, since Sasuke did NOT like seeing the boy hurt himself like that. It reminded him of his own times pounding the training posts uselessly while his father praised Itachi over him.

"You're spacing out." Sakura noted, standing up on somewhat wobbly legs. She seemed to have lost that habit she had of blushing at mere physical proximity. That was good. She might have been faking it, but he liked to think it was progress.

Sasuke shook his head, but did not apologize. "You feeling better?"

Sakura nodded.

"We'll stretch and then we'll be done for the day."

Sakura's stomach growled as she imitated Sasuke's movements, although as was expected of her slimmer and feminine body she managed to stretch further than him. When they were done, Uzumaki was already done with his own exercises, as well, although Sasuke hadn't been observing him so who knows what the blond had put himself through.

The fact that Sakura's stomach continued its protests made her blush rather fiercely from embarrassment, but she knew better than to voice her concerns out loud.

The Uchiha's own stomach growled as well and he knew that nobody was home in his house. His father tended to come in quite late, his brother could be gone for weeks at a time and his mother was currently on a mission with her new Genin team, her last one having dissolved after two members were promoted and the other was reassigned.

Thinking it over, Sakura decided the best course of action. "Uhm… Sasuke, do you want to accompany me to find something to eat?" She asked, shyly looking up at the Uchiha, kicking the ground with her other leg in a gesture that was no doubt meant to evoke the image of a sad little girl. Basic Kunoichi Manipulation.

This caused the Uchiha to sigh. He'd been certain she had been improving. Well, it was work in progress, he guessed, he just had to reject her until she understood that he did not look at her that way and that she should take her training more seriously than romantic pursuits…

… but then again, maybe she was simply fishing for a reward. If she didn't get rewarded for her efforts, she might consider putting in any effort at all to be pointless. What to do?

"What about you, Uzumaki-san?" Asked Sakura, whirling around and taking the choice away from Sasuke. He had, however, seen her face contort after his hesitance to answer. Sakura, it seemed, had understood that he wasn't entirely against the idea and had probably guessed why. Her good grades, after all, hadn't been only because of her unnaturally good memory.

Uzumaki looked at her for an instant and then nodded. Then he began walking, much to their shock. He was mid-way out of the training ground when he turned around, with a bored look on his face.

"I… think he wants us to follow him." Sakura said. Uzumaki nodded. "Okay, then…" Sakura said, shrugging. Sasuke simply nodded and began walking behind Sakura at a brisk pace, since Uzumaki didn't seem keen on waiting.

Uzumaki lead them through the village, walking without a care in the world as he was wont to, though strangely enough, there was no book in Uzumaki's hands and there seemed to be a spring to his step that Sasuke and Sakura were both surprised by.

The blond had yet to display enthusiasm for anything. Even for what was arguably his only hobby, training, he simply went and did it. Well, one can get bored from just about anything if one does it for too long. Yet, why exactly Uzumaki seemed enthusiastic was beyond either of the other members of Team 7. Maybe he just enjoyed their company?

After they'd broken through the crowds in the market district, they took a few turns that lead them away into a decidedly poorer part of the city. Whereas before most buildings were well kept, oft ranging from rather nice one story building to ostentatious two story manors, right now they'd gone into a part of town where there were no houses that one could call nice.

There were small kids running around, playing, throwing paper shuriken at each other. There were adults, carrying things, running and bustling. It was decidedly dirtier and poorer than what either Sakura or Sasuke were used to, but being new and fascinating, it kept their interest.

What also gained their interest was the fact that people looked pointedly away from them… no, that was wrong. Sasuke had noticed people staring at him and the fan on the back of his blue shirt. No, they were pointedly looking away from the ten year old boy walking a few steps ahead of him and Sakura.

Uzumaki just got more interesting with each passing moment.

Whereas Sasuke was fascinated by this new part of the village he'd been to, Sakura seemed a tad more… reserved, often keeping her eyes forward and avoiding eye contact with anyone. She was, for lack of a better word, afraid of what she considered a bad neighborhood. Sakura had never wandered away from the general area of her parents' ancestral home that had belonged to her great grandparents, and it was a rather nice neighborhood.

Sasuke did notice, however, that every once in a while, somebody would look Uzumaki directly in the eye, with undecipherable looks on their faces. It was highly odd. He also briefly noticed a mugger trying to take a woman's purse only to find out the woman was a Kunoichi and had to stifle the laugh at the thug's face when he'd been left groaning against the floor.

It was probably thanks to her headband, which held her hair away from her face, that the few people who'd looked oddly at them (at her, more specifically) hadn't approached the trio yet. Then again, anyone who took one look at Uzumaki then looked pointedly away. It was odd and distracting, considering Uzumaki was as threatening as a baby kitten.

It did not take long for the blond to lead Team 7 where he wanted them to be.

It was a stall. A simple stall that had clearly seen better days. There was graffiti on one of its sides, though it was washed out and barely noticeable anymore. There was also a big board with 'Ichiraku Ramen' written on black kanji. The smell was… quite inviting, actually, and it made both Sasuke and Sakura lean forward.

Naruto walked in through the flap, hopping to the seat that was only slightly shorter than him. "Ah, Naruto-kun, that you?" asked a tired voice. Uzumaki nodded, and when Sasuke and Sakura noticed what he was looking at they saw the ramen chef, no doubt Ichiraku himself, already busy preparing a bowl of ramen that within seconds was in front of Uzumaki along with a pair of chopsticks.

The sheer gusto with which Uzumaki devoured his ramen almost knocked Team 7 a few steps back. Okay, he loved ramen. No doubt about it.

"Come on in! I take it you're Naruto-kun's team, eh?" The warm and inviting voice of the stall's owner said from behind the flaps, enticing said team to enter and seat themselves to either side of Uzumaki, in an odd imitation of their team picture. "What can I get you?"

Sakura seemed to hesitate for a second. "Miso's fine." She said. Ichiraku nodded and turned to Sasuke.

Sasuke seemed to take a few seconds longer. "Do you have anything with tomato on it?" He asked, after a few moments deliberating.

"I'll see what I can do." The owner said with a smile. He worked fast, going to and from, slicing vegetables with ease and stirring the pot with a slow, trained hand. "So… I hope Naruto-kun hasn't caused too much trouble for you, lads." The ramen chef said, turning to the two while the ramen cooked.

"None at all… Uzumaki-san is a very talented ninja." Sakura said, conversationally. "Uhm… If you don't mind me asking, how did you two meet?"

Ichiraku chuckled. It seemed he had actually been expecting the question. "Well, Naruto-kun happened to be passing by the front of my stall and I thought he seemed like he was hungry, so I invited him in. And he's been a regular ever since." The man said, turning around and returning to his stove, serving Sakura her Miso ramen and, an instant after, an experimental flavor focused around the taste of tomatoes to Sasuke.

It was surprisingly good, well, Sasuke liked it, anyway.

"Oh… That simple?" Sakura said.

"Well, I offered him a bowl of ramen for free and he liked it." Ichiraku said, randomly handing Naruto another bowl and taking the empty one. "So… that's pretty much it."

Sasuke blinked. So did Sakura. Well, simplicity made sense. And the ramen WAS good.

"I'm back!" Yelled a rather cheerful feminine voice, as a girl that was clearly at least five years older than either Sasuke or Sakura walked through the flaps, smiling cheerfully as she wandered in with a paper bag holding the groceries she'd no doubt gone out to buy.

"Good timing, Ayame." Said the ramen stall's owner, gesturing with his eyes at the three clients on the counter eating their respective bowls.

Ayame blinked and then looked at them. Almost four seconds later, Uzumaki was taken away from his meal as he was lifted off the stool and pressed against Ayame's bosom. "You're as cute as ever, Naruto-kun!" She half-said half-squealed, waving the little boy around who seemed completely unaffected by said display.

Sasuke turned to Ichiraku. "Does that happen with every adult woman? My mother did the exact same thing." There was no jealousness in Sasuke's voice, no sir, and no, that wasn't envy right there, where his left eyebrow was twitching.

Ichiraku shrugged.

Sakura frowned, looking at Uzumaki, who was yet to make any movement to extricate himself from the bosom of the woman just entering adulthood who seemed to be chatting rather animatedly with him, although of course she was the only one of the two to speak. Uzumaki nodded or shook his head every once in a while.

However, there were more important things to focus on. Namely, the quite delicious bowl of Miso ramen that was growing colder by the second. Sakura went back to eating, keeping an ear open nonetheless. She learned many things about Uzumaki that afternoon. Namely, she learned that Uzumaki used to come every day when he was in the second year of the academy, often for dinner after training and that apparently he'd gone to eat at Sasuke's house several times.

It kind of irked her that Uzumaki had achieved so easily what she'd been trying to achieve for years, namely, to become close to Sasuke… but then she mentally slapped herself. It was dumb to think like that and Sakura prided herself in her intellect.

She also learned how Sasuke had become friends with Uzumaki, specifically, and her respect for both of them grew. Uzumaki apparently trained until he'd turned his limbs into unrecognizable lumps of flesh (although Sasuke had been working to curb that practice considering that it could have harmful effects in the long run and was not conductive to missions at all) every day. That took balls.

Sasuke had seen him doing exactly that and had been there to help him when he hurt himself more than usual, and from then on, Sasuke had just stuck around the blond because the blond obviously didn't take care of himself so someone had to. It was odd to hear that coming from a boy her age. Then again, Sakura understood the feeling.

As soon as Sakura began to ignore her parents' warnings regarding Uzumaki and actually took the time to get to know him, he was about as threatening as a kitten. Sure, he might be a complete monster in a fight, capable of manhandling the one who'd graduated as Rookie Of The Year without much effort, but outside of that, when she looked at him now, being looked over and scolded by a girl who could've passed as a caring, protective elder sister…

She smiled and shook her head. It was evident that her parents were horrible judges of character. Uzumaki had done nothing against her and had actually helped her in her training. It kind of made her question why exactly her parents would call the boy a troublemaker she needed to stay away from…

She doubted it was his reputation. It'd been shot down immensely over the boy's last two years at the academy, even if Sakura's parents claimed the contrary happened amongst the housewives…

* * *

"Target in sight. Location confirmed." A calm, collected voice spoke. "Requesting permission to engage, over."

"Permission denied. We will surround the target and attack as a unit." Another voice, just as calm and collected, but decidedly more masculine, spoke. "Where is Fishcake?"

"Fishcake… is engaging the target."

"Dammit! I thought we'd planned this operation! Blossom, support Fishcake!"

"That… won't be necessary, Captain. Fishcake has subdued the target."

Sasuke blinked. Then he headed into the clearing where Sakura had gone to wait to ambush the target. There should only have been a fat cat with a big red ribbon on the left ear there, but instead, he found the usual blond boy holding the cat by the scruff of its neck. There were a few scratch marks on Uzumaki's face, some threateningly close to his left eye, and more than a few bite marks on his hands. But the cat seemed calm right now.

Sasuke blinked. "Mission Complete, then." He said, shrugging. "Who's carrying the cat?" He asked, seeing Sakura leap into the clearing next to him.

Uzumaki simply placed his free left hand around the cat's waist and held it secure against his small torso. The cat made no movement to resist the change in position, which made Sasuke suspicious for a second of it being dead, but it's big, round belly inflated and deflated at a steady rate, so at least it was alive.

The Uchiha turned around and looked at Sakura. "How did he subdue it?"

Sakura shook her head. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

For some reason, this killed Sasuke's curiosity.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen was not an easily surprised man. Nevertheless, his jaw hung open and his pipe dropped from its usual perch. "Ten… minutes?" he said, looking positively shocked.

"It left a trail of scratched and swearing people behind itself. It was easy to track." Sasuke said, shrugging. Leading it into the trap had been even easier. The cat reacted to every sound and retreated, all they had to do was lead it into a clearing where it wouldn't be able to use the trees to hide itself.

Then again, he hadn't expected Uzumaki to subdue it so easily after it'd proven so nimble and agile despite its bulk. That cat had to be a ninja cat.

"I'd like to request a C Rank mission."Hatake said, standing behind his team. Sasuke wanted to punch him in the nuts for leaving them to do two d ranks per day and not give them any training whatsoever.

This caused the Hokage to raise an eyebrow. "So soon? It's only been a week since you got your team, Kakashi, don't you think it's a little early?"

"Meh. They're ready." The jounin said, as nonchalant as ever. "And if they aren't, it'll be a good lesson anyway."

Had Iruka been manning the mission desk that day, he might have protested. As it was, the chunin manning the desk (the Hokage was just there to give the Cat mission, since he absolutely loved seeing the genin's faces when they came back with the cat) didn't give a flying fuck about it and merely offered them a C ranked mission from the pile.

A simple escorting job from here to the capital of the fire country. Easy, since the man was not a particularly wealthy merchant but was still carrying valuable cargo. The most they could expect was a bandit attack. Closing the scroll and finishing the explanation, Hatake nodded. "We'll take this one, Hokage-sama." He said, looking at his team. "We'll depart from the South Gate since we will have to stop by a few towns before going straight to the capital. Be ready at seven sharp. Pack for two weeks at the most.

* * *

Sasuke was unimpressed with the client, a man who seemed to think that the Shinobi he'd hired were his servants. Well, the only one he didn't seem to annoy was Hatake, who actually relayed his orders to the genin and watched them mutter curses under their breath.

Uzumaki, of course, did everything commanded of him without a word of backtalk, but Sasuke was beginning to be able to tell when Uzumaki didn't like doing something. While there was nothing as bloody obvious as his love of ramen, there were small cues that Sasuke had begun to pick up on. Like for example whether or not Uzumaki read intently while doing something or not. Right now, his eyes were glued to his book as he walked next to the caravan, which meant that he was probably not having a good time in the mission at all.

Sakura was exempted from the physically demeaning tasks by virtue of being a cute twelve year old girl who the merchant who'd hired them in the first place couldn't bring himself to force into doing what most civilians saw as traditionally male tasks. Every time they stopped at a town, the jackass would make them load and unload his cargo. He'd unload a few pieces of valuable cloth and pick up even more valuable pieces of cloth. It was an odd exchange to do.

Despite having a jackass client and a jackass teacher who was yet to teach them anything at all, Sasuke felt that it could've been worse. It was the first time he ever got out of his village, and even better, he was going to see the capital with his team!

When they finally hit the final town, a small woodcutters' village where the man merely left a few boxes and obtained a few coins in exchange, Sasuke thought that the mission was finally looking up. But in fact, it'd only get worse, way worse.

In the middle of nowhere, where there weren't even forests to distract himself by counting trees, Sasuke felt danger coming. And when he looked up in alert, he saw his teacher get struck by a colossal dragon of flame that rapidly reduced him to ashes.

The man who'd conjured the dragon, dressed in mostly white and purple, rushed forward, followed by two men who were just as tall, except each of them had a deformity that made them stand out. The one on the left had a horn growing from the side of his head and the one on the right had a freaking tail trailing behind him.

Maybe it was a weird Kekkei Genkai that made them sprout animal-like traits, but Sasuke wasn't willing to wait to get to know whatever their effects were. As a reaction to their attack, ignoring the sting of hopelessness that he felt at seeing a jounin who'd trounced him so easily taken out, Sasuke let loose a volley of Kunai and Shuriken that a blast of wind from the horned one knocked away.

No, it hadn't been a blast of wind.

It had simply been the man roaring and stopping the ninja weapons in their tracks.

That sheer power, to do that merely by roaring? What hope was there in fighting such opponents? He would surely lose and die.

Sasuke's eyes were glued to an orange blur as it sped towards the three. He knew that orange blur. He saw the small figure engage all three in melee combat. He felt any and all words die in his throat, and his ability to breathe hindered as he choked on them. Uzumaki had engaged three opponents in battle…

… and was losing. Horribly.

Despite greater agility, technique and strength, Uzumaki was simply outnumbered and the more experienced opponents covered each other perfectly, which made Uzumaki's counters far less effective, as the three monsters covered each other's holes whenever Uzumaki wanted to exploit them.

It wasn't long until one of them drew a long, wicked curved blade and, while Uzumaki was busy dealing with the other two, slashed it across the blond's back. An arc of blood shot from the wound, staining the blade, the wielder and the ground, though a quick reaction had rendered the wound a shallow one.

Sasuke scowled. He would not let himself be a coward. He would not just sit there and watch as Uzumaki dealt with the opponents he was too scared to.

Sakura had beaten him to the punch, though, as it had been her quick reaction, namely, flinging several shuriken and kunai at the distracted ninja wielding the strange curved blade, that had stopped the wound from being fatal. On top of that, she'd actually hit the man enough that he would most likely be out of the battle.

Taking advantage of their distraction, seeing their comrade nearly killed by a genin would distract anyone, Uzumaki decided to make the fight one on one by landing a devastating cross to the face of one of the unsuspecting monsters, which sent him flying back, and he spun around to roundhouse the other one, only to see the man-monster catch his leg and prepare to stab him with a kunai…

… Except Sasuke delivered a kick he'd later learn Maito Gai had patented as 'Dynamic Entry' to the side of the man's head, snapping his neck and sending him flying back, a fierce scowl on his face.

The horned one, the one that Sakura had taken out early into the fight, rose to his feet, blood still dripping from the Kunai imbedded into his body, jumped forward and tackled Sasuke to the floor while he was recovering from the earlier kick.

These people's skin was ridiculously hard, and Sasuke was certain that this was what hitting a brick wall felt like. Not to mention, they were also ridiculously strong. The problem? Sasuke was used to fighting with Uzumaki, who was not only ridiculously strong, Uzumaki also knew the many ways to destroy someone while these men were fighting like animals.

Sasuke's head snapped to the right and heard the sound of flesh meeting compacted dirt. Then his head went to the left and the other fist hit the ground. When the man growled and prepared to use both fists at once, an orange blur passed through Sasuke's field of vision and hit the horned man's chin, sending him flying away.

Uzumaki fell to his knees, however, holding himself up with his right hand. There was a sizable red mark on Uzumaki's stomach that was widening. Sasuke gasped at the sight of the first man he'd seen going through handsigns. "Raiton: Raisho(Lightning palm)!"

It seemed he was the group's ninjutsu expert, given that he'd been the only one to rely on it in the fight. The man shoved his lightning charged palm forward and struck Uzumaki who didn't even whimper as the lightning coursed through his body, merely dropped to the ground, paralyzed.

Sasuke rose to his feet quickly but was again blocked by one of the monsters, this time the one who had the tail. Maybe they'd just delayed the inevitable and they couldn't really fight off the three men who'd so easily killed their jounin sensei but…

Sasuke was pissed. Pissed at himself. Pissed because the one time he ever got to fight, he blew it. He had failed in protecting his client. He was already failing his first real mission. And worst of all, because Uzumaki had needed to protect him, the blond had gotten hurt, possibly lethally.

The Uchiha hadn't seen them inflict the wound on the blond's stomach, so he had to assume that Uzumaki had gotten it when he'd rushed to save him from the jackass pouncing on him. When the blond had fallen to the ground after getting shocked, Sasuke saw the Kunai sticking out of his back, so all he could assume was that the same man who'd shocked Uzumaki had stabbed him trying to stop him from getting to Sasuke.

It had been his fault that Uzumaki had gotten wounded so much. And now, all he wanted was to get to Uzumaki before

Sasuke blazed through handsigns, his anger fueling the chakra that he poured into the technique and brought his hands to his mouth. It'd taken him forever to master this one jutsu, but it was his pride. "Katon: Goukakyuu(Great Fireball)!" he yelled, letting loose a torrent of flames that quickly formed into a colossal sphere in front of him.

The man in front of Sasuke had leaped to assault Sasuke once again, most likely to repeat his interrupted earlier attack, only to find himself a pillow of flame. The man screamed and let loose a howl of pain, leaping away of the flame as soon as he had touched the ground, half-melted and burned.

Sasuke fell to his knees and ducked his head to avoid the retaliatory attack from… the man who still had the kunai sticking from his chest? These monsters just didn't stay down! When the man decided to use his weird curved blade to slash downward and kill the Uchiha for good, Sakura interrupted once again, this time actually stabbing the man with her kunai in the throat directly, a conflicted expression on her face.

The ninjutsu expert had leaped back when Sasuke had used the Goukakyuu and been going through handsigns again. "Katon: Karyu Endan!" the man yelled, letting loose a torrent of flame that put Sasuke's to shame which quickly took the shape of a roaring dragon that took to the sky and then headed down, to crash onto Team Seven and the two monsters…

* * *

CLIFFHANGER NO JUTSU!... Okay, that was terrible.

Bet most of you were expecting the Wave Arc? Well, I'm not entirely certain WHEN the wave arc happens, but I doubt it's as early as a week after the team is formed. After all, Kakashi is pretty confident in his team but he's not dumb, he won't take a team that's composed of only one competent genin, a fangirl and an incompetent if gutsy genin. So, I assume it happened when they actually learned to work together, more or less. In this case, they proved they could work together from the get go and passed the bell test with flying colors.

This Naruto trains more than Lee does in canon and Sasuke didn't train on his own, but rather with the help of his entire clan and Naruto himself, so both of them are actually vastly better than their canonical counterparts. Hilariously enough, canon!Sasuke is better at anything Uchiha than this Sasuke, who had Itachi around to tell him that focusing yourself on only one set of abilities to the detriment of the rest is NOT a good idea, as well as made it a point to show Sasuke the many ways to counter the Uchiha Taijutsu style which relies so much on the Sharingan to work that it's useless to those without it.

Sakura is not as good as Naruto was in canon at wave-arc level, but she's getting there since she actually trains with Sasuke and Naruto. After all, the whole point of fanfiction is to do things how we'd have liked them to be and changing Sakura from a weak, useless little girl into an actually competent Kunoichi just happens to be a goal of mine that Sasuke coincides with. Sasuke has Fugaku's training in how to lead a team and any team leader knows that the team is as strong as its weakest link.

Bringing Sakura up to par ASAP is a priority and now you can see that despite the fact that it's only been a week, she has actually taken her kunoichi training seriously. Canon!Sakura would've frozen in fear the moment she saw Kakashi get reduced to ash with the first Karyu Endan and done absolutely nothing. Here, she reacted well and fast enough to prevent someone from splitting one of her teammates in half. Quite an improvement from the girl who's basically useless, hm?

I do hope y'all actually like the scene that shows that despite the differences, there are things that Naruto is just not Naruto without.


	4. Enduring Resolve

Aaaah... How I love cliffhangers... NOT. Seriously, I don't like using them, but the chance felt so perfect that I just couldn't resist. The chapter was getting very long already so I decided to cut it there.

Thank y'all for the reviews and anything that might need to be adressed on the reviews is, as usual, at the bottom!

And now, for the conclusion.

* * *

"Suiton: Suiryuudan(Water Dragon Bullet)!"

Sasuke had closed his eyes, expecting the fiery maws of the dragon to close on him and burn the life out of him, but all that hit him was a wave of relatively warm steam. Both of the monsters had been left pretty damn confused and the Uchiha could understand why.

He was pretty damn confused himself.

The one Sakura had stabbed in the throat reacted first and moved to choke the life out of the pinkette, but it seemed to stop mid step. It gurgled a bit, clutched its throat and dropped to the ground, finally drowning in its own blood.

The other one stood stock still for an instant before dropping to the floor, as well, a shiny metallic object sticking from his back exactly at the correct angle and position to have gone through the man-monster thing's heart and finally ended its rampage.

Sasuke let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, seeing the familiar silhouette of his jounin teacher, who looked none too pleased at the man in the distance, who seemed to be running away rather intently, leaving a cloud of dust as he began to add chakra to his steps so he could run faster.

The Uchiha stood up, without casting a glance at the ground. If he didn't look at the dead bodies around him, they wouldn't spook him. He vaguely heard Sakura upchucking once the adrenaline wore off and she realized she'd killed someone. Hatake went to her side in an instant, holding her hair back and patting her back.

"I'm sorry, Sakura, but we won't get time to help you cope…" There was an odd quality to his words, as if he was containing his anger somehow.

"S-Sensei?" Sakura mumbled, looking up and trying to spit the horrible taste of bile away from her mouth. "W-Wha…"

Sasuke blinked and finally allowed himself to look down. There was something missing in his field of vision. There was no bright, spiky blond hair anywhere in sight. There was no glaring 'kill me' orange to force him to avert his eyes.

Well, there was. There were a few scraps of bloodied orange fabric.

Looking at where the man had escaped, Sasuke let out a loud, furious growl. Sakura blinked and looked around as well, finally settling her gaze on the very noticeable tracks left by the man.

"Don't worry." Kakashi said, his one visible eye looking focused for the first time since Sasuke had meet him. This fact alone had been enough that Sasuke had stopped referring to him as Hatake. He might have had grudging respect for the man's abilities and philosophy, but he had very little respect for him.

But now, seeing him so committed, Sasuke started to believe he might have misjudged the man.

"I am a tracker ninja. I will hunt that man down in no time. He won't be able to hide from me." He said, sounding so confident that he actually lifted a rather large weight from Sasuke's shoulders. It did not stop, however, the nagging feeling that it was somehow his fault. He was an Uchiha who had received training from his clan since he could walk. He should have been the best of the best. He'd been complacent and let Uzumaki go far past him.

And he'd gotten even more complacent and forced Uzumaki to pick up the slack. Of course, Uzumaki didn't have an entire clan's worth of techniques to fall back on.

Kakashi sighed and turned to the client. "This mission has gone far beyond what a team of Genin could manage. I hope you understand that this altercation will bump the ranking of the mission to B rank due to a confrontation with opponents of roughly Chunin level." The silver haired man explained. The client nodded, still taken aback by the display of brutality from both the adult opponents and the preteens that had dispatched them. "Sasuke, Sakura, remain here and accompany the client. I will be right back, with our missing teammate."

Sasuke opened his mouth to protest, only to notice Sakura beat him to the punch. "B-But, Sensei!" The Uchiha's composure already being on the verge of breaking, and thus him being far more aware of any breaches to usual Uchiha etiquette, was the only thing that kept him from openly commending the girl on, at least for the moment, thinking more about her teammate in peril than her own crisis.

"No buts. You're probably still reeling from the battle. Sasuke will keep your company. Don't worry, guys, I'm an elite Jounin. There are very few people in the elemental lands I'm not confident I can kill and I used to be part of the ANBU Hunter Nin Corps." He assured his team, turning back to the direction the man had run in and, taking a deep breath, began running, leaving behind himself a cloud of dust as he did.

Sasuke cursed. This mission had gone to hell in the worst way possible. They were wordless, emotionally and physically exhausted by their first real confrontation, as they boarded the wagon the client used for his trade. The man sent the girl a concerned look and urged his beasts of burden forward. No sense remaining rooted, and the silver haired man did say he was a tracking expert.

Not to mention, following the road would've been pathetically easy for even genin level ninja.

Sakura was beginning to get pale. "I… I…" She mumbled, rocking back and forth in her seated position. Tears were leaking out from her eyes. Her brain had finally caught up with what she'd done, what she'd been forced to do to protect her teammates. Sasuke felt a wave of nostalgia hit him.

He'd only seen someone else in that state, and it hurt him deeply to know that not only had he allowed it to happen again, Sakura had been forced to kill, to deliver a fatal blow, to protect HIM. He should have been protecting her! He should have been better! Stronger, faster, harder… he should have been capable of defending his teammates!

What good was a police captain who couldn't even keep a full team through his first mission? He had been implicitly given field command of Team 7 if Kakashi wasn't there. Neither of his teammates had objected. They'd trusted him with the task and he'd disappointed them!

And worst of all, now he was even failing to deal with Sakura's stress. Deciding to forego any and all etiquette and banking on the experience he'd earned when he'd dealt with someone else's post-stress trauma, he wrapped his arms around Sakura's shoulders and pulled her close to his chest.

The tears flowed freely, staining his shirt. He didn't care. "I killed that man… I saw him about to kill you so I…"

"It's okay, Sakura… you did what you had to do…" He said, rubbing her back, enduring her sob ridden speech. He bit his lower lip as she let out a particularly loud chain of sobs and seemed to relax the slightest bit. "You're a true Shinobi… Remember that…"

"But… I can't… I can't even keep my lunch down after my first kill…" She mumbled almost incoherently, forcing Sasuke to decipher what she'd meant and coming up with what he suspected was close to what she'd meant.

Sasuke sighed. "Sakura… My brother… you know who he is, right? The youngest ANBU captain ever, candidate to Hokage, Uchiha Itachi… You know him. Tall, emo and girly."

This drew a soft chuckle from the pink haired girl who was still trembling in his arms. To see such an honorable and dignified figure and posture as Itachi's described as 'Tall, emo and girly' was the least she'd expected to hear as comforting words.

"He once told me that someone who does not feel anything when they kill is not a true Shinobi… that someone with no heart was simply a mindless weapon." She knew the term. She was the best at theory, and the academy had briefly gone over the kinds of opponents one could face and the diplomacy that should be applied when dealing with them.

"But… A ninja is supposed to show no emotion… Ninjas don't cry… I'm breaking the rules… " She looked up at him, her wide green eyes making Sasuke feel another sting of guilt over his inability to prevent this from happening.

"The rules are bullshit." Sasuke said, seeing that Sakura had mostly calmed down and simply laid in his arms, most likely even more exhausted from her ordeal than he was from his. "Don't think less of yourself for crying, Sakura… Everyone cries when they are sufficiently upset."

"Even someone… like Hokage-sama?"

Sasuke nodded, seeing the tiny bit of hope in her eyes.

"What about you?" she asked, catching Sasuke by surprise.

"I… I guess…" He said, smiling. "But then again… you guys don't give me a lot of reasons to cry about, you know?" He said, stroking her hair gently.

Sakura smiled, and finally allowed herself to drift off.

"I've gotta hand it to ya, kid." The merchant said, looking over his shoulder at Sasuke, who now had the pinkette snuggling against his side. "For what it's worth… I agree with you. It takes a special kind of strength to allow yourself to cry and that strength… that's the kind of strength you can only get from your bonds with your friends." The man said, adjusting his large straw hat so that it properly blocked the sun. "Never forget it."

Sasuke found himself absent mindedly nodding.

"Knock yourself out f'r a while. It'll prolly do ya good." The man continued in a strangely good natured voice. It seemed the man had gained some measure of respect for his Shinobi if he was willing to actually speak to him like that. Sasuke smiled, letting Sakura snuggle closer to him. "I'll wake you up if anything important comes up. Don't think nobody else'll have the balls to jump us, though…"

* * *

"Sasuke…"

"Ungh… five more minutes…"

"Sasuke… Up…"

"I'll… be… right up…"

Sasuke's eyes snapped open, however, as he felt a rather cold breeze chill his body, only to find himself on the back of the wagon, with an annoyed looking Sakura staring him right in the eye. "You know how hard it is to wake you up? I've been trying to wake you up for the last ten minutes!" She said, annoyance barely hidden in her tone.

"Wha…" Sasuke mumbled, rubbing his head. "What… did something happened?"

Sakura pointedly ignored his messed up words. Probably still processing the fact he woke up to begin with. "Sensei… found Uzumaki-san…" She said, looking very sad as she did. "He's… badly wounded, but he's not letting sensei patch him up."

Sasuke groggily stood up and mumbled a curse under his breath. The cover of night had fallen and they'd camped for the night.

"We let you sleep because you'll be taking guard. You'll sleep in the wagon during the morning." Sakura stated, answering the unasked question. "You'd be more alert during the night like this and after what happened… well, we aren't risking it. We don't know who attacked us, since they weren't wearing headbands and they didn't do anything that could identify them…"

Sasuke sighed and then jumped off the wagon, landing on the ground with a thud. His eyes scanned the road and much to his chagrin he found what he was looking for not too far away from where he was standing right now. Two, maybe three, meters away sat Uzumaki Naruto, blood freely flowing from a multitude of wounds in his body. The boy had wrapped his own arms in thick bandages that were already being tinted red, but the ones that had been torn around his back remained untouched.

The Uchiha directed a glance towards where his jounin teacher had joined the client next to a small fire and a pot cooking over it. The silver haired man nodded and then gestured towards Uzumaki. It was easy to guess why. Uzumaki trusted him the most out of team 7 and they'd been friends for years now, so he had the best chance of getting through to him.

Though it made him wonder… why exactly hadn't the jounin already done the deed himself? Had Uzumaki refused to be tended to by the man? It… seemed surprisingly likely. For all of his toughness, the blond had a huge problem with taking care of himself or allowing others to take care of him. The one exception being, of course, the unofficial leader of Team 7.

Sasuke walked up to him and then sat down next to the blond. "We should bandage your wounds… you could bleed out."

Uzumaki shook his head. Sasuke had to admit something was odd about the whole thing. Uzumaki was incredibly tough, yes, but humans had their limits. You could only lose so much blood before your life was threatened, and he should have lost consciousness long ago, if Sasuke's calculations were correct.

Yet here he was, impossibly alert and awake even though he should be feeling tired already, if not from the lack of blood then at least from the physical and emotional exhaustion. Sasuke had decided that he had to find out why exactly Uzumaki didn't want to be patched up. "Why don't you let us help you?"

Uzumaki blinked. The first time Sasuke had seen him surprised by anything in a very long time. Sasuke had played the part of the nurse for Uzumaki several times in the past, as the blond had a tendency to go way overboard during training. Maybe Uzumaki didn't trust him, even after all that time?

Sasuke sighed. "Let me help you. That has to be painful, and the blood loss must be bothering you a lot. We have to take off and change the bandages or you'll get a nasty infection." It was hard, trying to get that information through to someone who Sasuke was certain had at one point pounded his own fists into paste against a wooden post.

Probably more than once even.

Sasuke began to rack his head, trying to find out a possible cause for why Uzumaki did not want them to change his bandages. Maybe… maybe he was simply self conscious? It… it was a possibility. "I promise that I won't let Sakura or Kakashi watch."

Uzumaki stared at the floor for a full ten seconds, seemingly debating what to do. The boy had only removed the orange jacket, showing the white shirt that was now more red than white, to change the bandages on his arms. The blond nodded, a short, timid nod, towards Sasuke.

Sasuke looked around and noticed that not too far away, the others had set up their tents. So, with a sigh, he helped Uzumaki to his feet and lead him into the tent. Then he turned to the others and shrugged.

However, he only received nods from Kakashi, Sakura and the client. Then he followed Uzumaki into the tent and almost instantly noticed that the light of the fire just barely managed to allow him to see Uzumaki sitting in front of him. The tent was designed for one person, so the two were a bit cramped inside.

With deliberately slow and unintentionally teasing movements, Uzumaki removed his abused white shirt and revealed the blood coated bandages and a jagged red line that was still flowing with blood.

Sasuke's hand went for the bandages, grabbing them from the top of his back and slowly dragged his hands down, lifting the bandages that had clung to Uzumaki's skin through the blood that soaked them. He saw Uzumaki stiffen as his hands touched the last few bandages. Once they were all loose, he carefully pulled them off.

Some of the bandages had managed to avoid the strange blade's curved blade and were still tightly secured against Uzumaki's shoulders and upper chest. Every one of them on his lower back was at a loss, though.

Sasuke gasped, seeing the collection of scars on Uzumaki's lower back. Well… that was a reason why he would be self conscious. Perhaps he didn't want the pity he'd certainly get if his teammates saw his body? Regardless, Sasuke still smiled. Uzumaki had trusted him and him alone with replacing the bandages that he couldn't replace himself.

The Uchiha went about cleaning the wound, reaching for a canteen that he'd conveniently found inside the tent and a piece of cloth he'd ripped from the white shirt. The part that wasn't already bloodied, anyway.

He heard that incredibly soft gasp as the cloth touched the area close to the wound. It seemed Uzumaki was in quite a bit of pain since he very rarely voiced it. Sasuke frowned, but continued with his task. The wound was shallow enough that it most likely wouldn't require stitches. It hadn't reached the spine. Sakura's move had probably saved Uzumaki from being a cripple.

Once the wound was clean, he set about bandaging it, accepting a roll of pristine white bandages from Uzumaki. Curiously enough, the wound had stopped bleeding despite appearing to be quite open.

Even so… without the bulky clothing gone, Uzumaki looked positively minuscule. The little boy was small and while his unnatural toughness often distracted one from it, now… now that he was here, exposed, he didn't look like a trained killer. He looked like a fragile little boy who had seen far too many things in his lifetime. A boy who'd lived through far too many things he should not.

Even the scars didn't detract from this fact.

The few times that Sasuke's hands made contact with Uzumaki's naked skin, he was forced to stop his mind from wandering off. There was no way that a ninja should have such ridiculously soft skin. The fact that, unlike his face and hands which were a healthy tan, his back was pale and obviously lacking proper exposure to the sun.

The Uchiha mentally frowned at how the red quickly stained the bandages when they made contact with the open, if shallow, wounds that littered Uzumaki's small torso.

Then he remembered something odd. Hadn't Uzumaki been pierced through? He had. He remembered that. So… why was that wound shallow like every other one? That should have required urgent medical attention. Yet… it seemed fine.

Maybe he'd imagined it, but nevertheless, Sasuke filed it in the back of his mind.

In his concentration, Sasuke missed how Uzumaki shivered every time Sasuke's rough, calloused fingers touched his skin.

Uzumaki stiffened once more when Sasuke applied pressure to the bandages, relaxing finally when Sasuke finished and tied them. "Your shirt and jacket are a loss, though." Sasuke sounded actually apologetic about said fact. "You should also replace your pants as soon as possible. But… I bet you want to keep those.

The blond nodded. And… maybe it was the lighting. Yeah, it had to be the lighting. There was absolutely no way that Uzumaki had just blushed. The guy didn't blush, ever. "Okay, Uzumaki… we're all done."

Sasuke turned and reached for the flap that separated the tent from the outside world, but then there was a hand stopping him from opening it. The hand belonged to an arm clad in bandages. "Naruto." He heard in a soft voice barely above a whisper. "Call me… Naruto…"

Sasuke was taken aback.

To most, the gesture would be completely meaningless. In fact, even Sasuke himself put little weight in the tradition of calling someone by their surname unless they gave you permission to use their first names. Sure, it was a sign of respect, but it was also a sign of distance and most people, these days, did not want to remain always distant of their comrades.

These days, it had become more a gesture of distance than of respect, but Sasuke, who knew its true purpose, had always meant it as a display of the respect he felt towards Naruto. To show, in a little way that most would not have caught, that he had always, on some level, admired the boy who trained until his fists bled and he couldn't lift his feet.

He referred to Umino Iruka, the one teacher who had ever treated him like he would any other student, the same way. Then again, before he'd come to respect Kakashi as a teacher, he'd referred to him by his surname.

Maybe there wasn't the same distance that was between him and Uzumaki and that was why he had no trouble using the first names of his teammates. It had been… easier, to relate to them. Sakura had wormed her way into his heart, as a friend, very easily after she'd stopped trying to 'steal it', as fangirls were wont to and conversation with her always came easy.

Surprisingly, despite his lack of respect for Kakashi, he had never truly hated or disliked him. Sure, he might have been incompetent but the man's antics were at times absolutely hilarious and despite never interfering with their training, the lessons that the man had taught them were still fresh in their minds.

There had never been such ease in his relationship with the blond boy who even now looked frail and hesitant. Who, for the first time since Sasuke had known him, looked to be at a loss on what to do, desperate for an answer after taking what he must no doubt have considered a huge step.

There had always been a gulf between them. They were friends, yes, but there was always something that separated them. A distance that neither was willing to cross. Uzumaki… no, Naruto had never willingly spoken to him and he had always called him with a respectful

"Okay… Naruto." He said, tentatively. It rolled off his tongue quite nicely.

The blond let go of his arm and nodded.

"You should rest. You should be tired by now…" Sasuke said.

Uzumaki shook his head and tried to stand up.

At that point, Sasuke didn't know what exactly had possessed him to do what he did, but the fact is, he still did it. Without thinking, he brought one of his hands forward, right in front of Uzumaki's forehead and, without a doubt, poked him in the forehead. "Go to sleep." He ordered, an odd smile on his face.

As Naruto was left dumbfounded blinking and at a complete loss of what to do, Sasuke moved out of the tent, moving to where the rest of the team and the client had gathered together to eat. He sat down on a piece of raised dirt that Kakashi had raised with an earth technique.

He sighed, letting his tension flow.

"Complicated patient I take it." The masked ninja began, offering Sasuke a bowl of soup which the Uchiha accepted graciously. "How's he doing?"

"He's… fine, I guess." Said the Uchiha, though he didn't sound very convinced about it. "Just… don't punch him and he'll be fine."

Kakashi chuckled, but Sakura actually took his advice seriously and nodded obediently. "Sasuke… did you learn why Uzumaki-san doesn't want to show us his body?" The silver haired teacher questioned.

"Yes." Sasuke said. "But he will tell you when he wants to."

Kakashi looked bored at that. "I could just order you to give up the information." He said.

"But you wouldn't." The Uchiha said.

"Right." Kakashi said, shrugging.

"I… I think Uzumaki-san might be hungry, so…" Sakura said, looking intently at the still warm soup. "Should I bring him something to eat?" She actually looked at Sasuke when she asked that.

Sasuke nodded. "Do let him rest if he's sleeping, though…"

* * *

"Well, guys, it's been a pleasure to ride with you but this is where our paths diverge." The client said. "If I ever have to hire an escort again, I'll remember to ask for Team Kakashi." He said, waving his large straw hat in the air, offering them a cheerful grin.

It had taken them two weeks to complete the mission, and the payment slip for the B ranked mission was signed upon arriving at the capital.

Deciding that they wanted to get to Konoha desperately, Team 7 rushed back, although Naruto seemed discontent with the fact that he had been forced to ride on Kakashi's back, since there was no telling whether or not his wounds would reopen, as they hadn't been stitched properly and, despite being relatively shallow wounds, they were still numerous and big so Kakashi would rather not risk it. He was already taking a big risk by going through the quick route (namely, going through the trees of the massive forests that surrounded Konoha on all sides) instead of taking the slow road that twisted through the forest.

Sasuke was completely okay with the decision and so was Sakura. Both were quite shaken by the experiences they'd gone through in the mission and wanted to get back to Konoha ASAP.

What irked the genin more than anything else was the fact that Kakashi was incredibly tight lipped when it came to how he'd recovered Naruto. Sasuke was dying to know what exactly that ninja had done to the small blond that clung to Kakashi's back. He had to content himself to know that Kakashi had not given him a quick and painless death.

Or at the very least, he hoped that Kakashi had not been quick.

As they were rushing through the trees, he saw Naruto turn around to face him as his thoughts on the men he'd met in this mission, whose actions had seemed to be simply a random act of violence, possibly rogue ninja attempting to ambush and murder a genin team to get whatever they were guarding seemed to come to the forefront again.

His helplessness when he'd been incapable of defeating them and the anger and hatred he had felt when the ninjutsu expert had just up and taken Naruto… it made Sasuke's blood boil.

Naruto pointed at his own eyes, then at Sasuke… and then he noticed that the world was flowing much more smoothly than it ever seemed to. Usually, when he leaped through the woods at speeds like this, everything would blur together but now… now everything seemed so clearly defined, so… vibrant… that it surprised him.

"Sharingan…" Sasuke muttered. Only then did he feel that there was a drain of chakra going towards his eyes. With an instant of effort, he closed it off, not even losing his feet, though it made the next leap an instant slower as he adjusted to the changed sight. Sakura looked at him with concern in her face for a moment, but he shook his head and continued racing forward.

So that was it, then? His father had said that a life threatening situation first unlocks the Sharingan, and from then on, everyone has a different way of triggering it. Was his anger and hatred?

It couldn't be. He refused to believe he would have to turn into a rage and hate-filled individual just to use his sharingan willingly. What was it, then? He had been thinking about the man who had taken Naruto when he activated the sharingan. He'd been enraged, yes, but… that wasn't what he'd been focusing on.

What he'd been focusing on was on his teammates. He had been focusing on the fact that he'd failed them and his determination to never fail them again. Simply being angry couldn't be the answer. He'd been angry, thoroughly pissed, before. He'd been angry when he'd learned what his brother was suffering through. He'd been angry when he'd learned what Naruto put up with every day. He'd been angry before.

So that wasn't the answer.

Was it… perhaps helplessness? Was it the despair and fear that he felt when he remembered just how utterly useless he was? The Sharingan was a natural defense that sped up the mind's perception and made many defensive maneuvers instinctual and automatic. In a sense, it was more of a shield than a weapon, as it proved by activating in a near death situation.

It might have been a rather… poor moment to choose to begin to ponder the nature of the Sharingan, but Sasuke couldn't bring himself to think of anything else.

He kept his head clear and alert and distracted his mind with thoughts of something that was in the end inconsequential and even if it weren't, it wouldn't affect him during the near future. He knew that if he let his mind wander, it'd just return to the same moment again and again.

To the moment where he'd had to hold the Kunoichi who'd cracked to pieces after her first kill.

To the moment where he almost crashed into a hundred pieces after failing to protect his teammates, after failing at being a leader and disappointing everyone around him.

This… this mission was a lesson. Maybe there was, in fact, a god watching out for him that made sure that Sasuke's humbling had not cost his teammates their lives. He'd always thought that he wasn't as arrogant as the members of his extended family tended to become upon unlocking the Sharingan.

Powerful weapon though it might be, it did not elevate its user and granted no leadership abilities. Being an Uchiha, alone, was not a cause to name one for leadership. Uchiha Itachi had earned the position of Hokage Candidate because he had lead his ANBU squad fairly and efficiently for years before retiring from ANBU to become a regular Elite Jounin.

Come to think of it… the ninja right in front of Sasuke was a team leader. When he took command, he had made the right call and so far, he'd somehow managed to make his team follow him willingly (despite being technically forced to follow him, Team 7 followed Kakashi's commands of their own free will, despite any (legitimate) complaints about his being a terrible teacher).

He'd have to ask Kakashi for tutoring on how to be an effective leader of a three man cell instead of the more general leadership that Fugaku had taught him. After all, Fugaku hadn't intended for Sasuke to become a field leader, but rather he'd intended for Sasuke to become the head of the police force in its entirety, and while his lessons proved useful at times, some could not be applied to Team 7's dynamics.

After all, Fugaku assumed Sasuke would work with people who weren't willing to give it their all and to follow his every command.

Heck, during the battle he had failed to give any commands at all and they'd fought in a disorganized manner.

Upon noticing that one of his students could not bring himself out of his funk, Kakashi sighed and turned his head around, making a show of the fact he didn't even need to look as he leaped forward. "Sasuke. Don't worry. This was the very first time you guys entered real combat. And believe me, I've seen worse." The silver haired Shinobi began, slowing down slightly so they'd have an easier time engaging in conversation.

"But… I-"

"All three of you knew what to do. Blondie and you engaged the enemy in close range combat and Sakura provided support. It's not a very complicated tactic, but it's one you fell in without needing to speak a word amongst yourselves and, while it might not seem like it, you fought like a team ought to, covering each other's backs." The jounin explained, giving one of those weird eye-smiles of his that always seemed to somehow make everything seem better. "If it makes you feel better… The first mission under my command during the war went much worse than this one… "

There was that odd, nostalgic quality on his voice that reminded Sasuke of Itachi's. It made him think about the fact that Kakashi probably had as many ugly stories about the war as his father did. He had fought in it from a very young age, probably hadn't been more than a genin thrust into the battlefield, even.

A simple grunt.

Wait. A grunt would not have been given command during a mission. He'd have to have been at least a chunin, and even then, a chunin would not lead an important mission. Hatake couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen back then.

Could it be possible..?

Nah, there was no way someone was a jounin by age thirteen. Even his brother had been only a chunin, despite being ANBU captain. He had been Captain more because of his strategic and logical mind rather than because of his combat abilities, after all. Jounin in general are the upper class in terms of brains and brawn.

There was no way that a thirteen year old boy, even during the war, could have been a jounin.

Regardless, Sasuke nodded at his sensei. The man no doubt had far more experience than he gave him credit for, and so Sasuke decided to trust his judgment on the matter. He would later discuss the mission with his brother and learn what he had done wrong and how he could do better next time. There was absolutely no way he'd repeat his mistakes.

Plus, he needed to train in the use of the Sharingan. It might be a crutch, but it was an incredibly useful one that even Itachi used extensively. The only reason Sasuke didn't call him a hypocrite was because while Itachi might use his Sharingan, it's very clear that he can go without it and he only pulled it out when it was necessary. It just so happened to be that taking S ranked missions was the kind of situation where nothing could be held back.

Sasuke nodded to himself.

Meanwhile, while jumping ahead, Kakashi nodded to himself, looking back at Sasuke and Sakura, slightly disturbing Naruto, who nevertheless returned to the oddly relaxed state he seemed to be in. Kakashi smiled under his mask as the blond snuggled against his back.

Oh, the memories. Now, however, was not the time for a flashback…

* * *

I'm sure a lot of you are already thinking things from the scene that takes place in the tent. As usual, it's up for interpretation, and I will stay entirely tight lipped about anything regarding pairings.

For any that are wondering what the significance of calling someone by the first name is... well, if you were japanese, you would get it. I did try to give an explanation as to why, despite beign a custom that fell in disuse, Sasuke was still using it. The thing is, he has very different ways of pronouncing things. When he calls Kakashi 'Hatake', he does not do it as a way of showing respect towards an elder or authority figure.

He does it to show that while he does respect Kakashi's authority, he does not consider him his teacher (notice the lack of 'Sensei') and does not consider him a friend either (As is with Sakura, whom he just calls by name).

When he calls Naruto 'Uzumaki', he does not do it to show a lack of friendship. He does it because he, subconsciously, respects him too much to refer to him by his given name without permission. Keep in mind that Sasuke has known Naruto since age 8 and by then Naruto was already training like what Lee would have trained like if he had burned out his pain receptors ages ago. Their relationship is marked more by mutual respect than by friendship, because Sasuke can't bring himself to bridge the gap until Naruto does it for him.

As for the characters being different than in canon... well, maybe I should have included the scene where Sasuke essentially gave Sakura an epic verbal beatdown, but I tried to write it and could not do justice to the diatribe that somehow convinced Sakura to stop being a fangirl. You're free to think whatever you will to fill up that blank about whatever it was that Sasuke ranted at her. Sakura is what I suspect she would have been like had someone broken her out of her fangirl complex and if Naruto weren't an annoying twit who was always there to prop her self worth up everytime Sasuke demolished it.

Sasuke is... what I expect he would have turned out like without the massacre and with all the shit that happened in his family. He still adores and looks up to Itachi and he wants to be the chief of the police force. He has nothing to avenge and no clan to ressurrect. He does have a clan to lead, however.

Naruto is an entirely different beast altogether. Want to know just what the hell is up with him? You'll have to keep reading. You will learn as soon as Sasuke learns.

If this answers none of your concerns... REVIEW! I will reply! I promise!


	5. Unraveling One Secret At A Time

You all good sirs deserve my thanks, and perhaps much more, for caring enough about this fic to leave your opinions on it.

Interesting fact: This story has a little more than a hundredth as many visits as my most popular story, The Darkest Void. I guess crossovers are just plain more popular. Meh. If you've read DV and are waiting for chapter 30... Don't worry. Engaging in a new project does not take time away from my other works. Instead, most of my projects actually help each other, since I keep getting ideas for writing parts of other projects while working on something completely different.

I never abandon my stories, though they might take a very long while to complete.

Any concerns the reviewers might have will, as usual, be answered at the bottom!

* * *

Kakashi had made the report not too long ago, and Sasuke had many things to speak to him about. Not the least of which was his concerns about his leadership abilities. Itachi would be back in three days, according to his mother, and then he could simply ask Itachi for help in leading a squad directly, if Kakashi proved insufficient.

Right now, that was the least pressing concern. "Sensei."

Kakashi actually stopped cold in his tracks and turned around to eye-smile at Sasuke. The Uchiha knew that the jounin had always known he was there, otherwise he would have probably reacted in a more extreme manner. "I… have a question."

"If it's about your budding attraction towards your teammates, don't worry, it's natu-"

Sasuke looked completely deadpan, folding his arms over his chest.

"So it's not about that, huh?" The silver haired Shinobi said, sighing. "Well, I'm listening."

Sasuke shook his head however. "I think we should take this somewhere more… private."

Kakashi frowned internally, but nodded nonetheless. "Well, I know one or two bars that cater to Shinobi wanting privacy." He said. "People will look at us weird though since… well, what would an adult do alone in a closed off space to his cute little genin student? The rumors will be all the rage!"

Sasuke slapped his forehead rather violently, wishing that his teacher was only trying to lighten the situation. If he really was concerned more about the rumors popping up than what Sasuke had to say, it could mean one of two things.

Either he wasn't concerned at all that Sasuke might ask a hard question or he had no intentions to answer any questions at all. With Hatake Kakashi, it tended to be the latter more than the former.

* * *

The place was quiet, dark and rather… how to put it? Well, to put it in the simplest terms I can think of, it felt like walking into a brothel without the sexy. It just had the atmosphere of discreteness that these places often boasted.

They'd had to pay for a room and the waitress who'd served them had tossed more than one odd look, both in Kakashi and in Sasuke's own direction. Kakashi seemed mildly embarrassed by it, but Sasuke himself didn't understand why. They were teacher and student and while that might not have been obvious, why else would…

Oh.

Shinobi probably used places like this to have secret relationships. After all, any and all relationships could be weaponized by the enemy and it only took a stray gossiper for someone to learn about your newest girlfriend whom you don't want to know.

It made sense to think they'd want a place that catered specifically to Shinobi to deal with that problem promptly.

Luckily, the odd looks had stopped when Kakashi had actually booked a room in the restaurant portion of the Shinobi-brothel-place. It seemed that the waitress had then decided to start sending another kind of odd look towards Kakashi. Apparently, he was popular with the ladies despite not showing his face at all.

Or maybe because of it. After all, his fangirls often chanted about his mysteriousness.

"Okay… They will bring us the ingredients soon, then we'll cook our own food. It's a security measure so we know they haven't poisoned our food." Kakashi said conversationally.

"What stops them from poisoning the ingredients? Or replacing the spices with powdered poisons? Or the sauce with liquid poison?" Sasuke stated.

"It's force of habit." Kakashi said, shrugging. "I just prefer cooking my own food. Keeps the one skill I never mastered sharp." He added, sitting down on the mat next to the table, cross legged. "So… take a seat."

Sasuke did as commanded and took a deep breath.

"What do you want to know?" The silver haired Shinobi asked. "Don't worry, there's nobody listening in and the walls are soundproof, so if you want to confess your undeniable lust towards your teammates, it's now or never."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Sasuke asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Well… When I got back to the caravan, you and Sakura were getting pretty intimate, and you hang out with Naruto a lot…" The jounin said, his tone light and teasing.

"Sakura is my friend, dammit! I just got through breaking her out of her childish crush on me, I'm not gonna turn around and stomp over all that progress by reversing the situation!" The Uchiha said, blushing bright red as he did.

"You're not denying you're close to Naruto…" It seemed that Kakashi had taken control of the conversation with a few comments. However, Sasuke was too infuriated at that moment to care.

"I don't swing that way!" Sasuke said, raising his voice. He didn't care if people would hear him. He hadn't heard anything when he was being led to this room so chances are nobody could hear him here anyway.

"Sasuke, there's nothing wrong with liking the same gender. In fact, it's very common amongst ninja to seek comfort in their teammates regardless of gender!" Kakashi lectured in a matter of fact tone that had Sasuke palming his forehead and wanting to Goukakyuu Kakashi's face right now.

"I don't-"

"And I don't think anyone can blame you. After all, you are a growing boy and your teammates are both splendid examples of either gender… or will grow up to be, anyway. In fact, you should be proud because I'm sure that neither of them will have problems with the arrangement!"

"We're twelve!" Sasuke nearly shrieked, his face making a very accurate imitation of what a Jack O Lantern would look like if it were made with a giant tomato.

"Sasuke, the moment you put your headband on your childhood ended. From that moment onward, you have been an adult. There is no walking or talking around it. You can kill, drink and have sex. You could walk into the red light district and nobody would bat an eyelash as long as your headband is in display." The silver haired Shinobi stated, this time growing serious. "Civilians might balk at this practice, but it's how it's always been and how it will always be."

Sasuke was actually taken aback by the lecture. He hadn't ever expected his sensei to actually grow serious in his explanation, much less that he'd turn his teasing into a lecture that actually made quite a bit of sense when he thought it through. He had wondered why exactly a place like this would just let him enter with no problem.

The waitress was most likely a civilian, which explained her reaction when Kakashi had walked in with Sasuke. It wasn't one of disgust from being shocked by something so unlikely, it was disgust born from having to witness something she found despicable many times and what he'd seen on her face when Kakashi had booked this room… It must have been relief.

To a civilian, a twelve year old boy was a child. Children were always seen as something to be protected by most cultures and rape was probably universally one of the worst seen crimes across the elemental nations. The idea that someone might rape a child probably brought disgust to just about anyone, psychopaths notwithstanding.

But ninja… Sasuke knew that ANBU had the Seduction corps. A ninja's body is the ultimate weapon and seduction is simply another form of combat. People with special talents were whisked away to the other divisions rather than the general forces. If that special talent lied within the realm of seduction, you'd join the corps.

Regardless of age.

He shook his head and cleared his thoughts. Kakashi was distracting him with his antics from the real reason why he wanted to talk with the man in private. "Stop changing the subject." The Uchiha commanded with a tone of finality that told the jounin that playtime was over.

Or at least, Sasuke hoped that the man would understand that much. "Okay, then… what do you want to know, Sasuke?" Kakashi said.

"What, exactly, is Uzumaki Naruto?"

Kakashi blinked his one visible eye several times.

The question had caught him off guard, it seemed, which made Sasuke reason that Kakashi had not expected to answer any questions. Sasuke's determination in getting the answer to this question, however, would not be felled.

Uzumaki Naruto was an enigma wrapped in mysteries. Whatever the hell he was, it was most decidedly something more than a simple human. He didn't know of any bloodlines that involved regeneration, not to the extent Uzumaki had regenerated (in a couple hours, a knife wound that had completely pierced his torso was nothing more than a shallow wound that was closer to a slash wound than a stab one). If there had been, it'd most likely be incredibly famous.

Anyone who could survive lethal and crippling wounds as easily as Naruto could and did would become famous, if only because they'd be incredibly hard to kill. Famously hard to kill, at least, and if it was an entire bloodline…

Kakashi sighed. "I guess the day would come when you'd ask. I assume I can't get away from this one by claiming it's a bloodline, then?" The teacher tried.

Sasuke shook his head somberly. "And you just confirmed that you know something." The Uchiha added, falling to silence for a few moments.

A set of knocks, two, followed by three followed by two, and Kakashi had opened the door to allow the waitress, now carrying a flirty smile aimed to the elder ninja as well as a tray with all the ingredients that Kakashi had asked for as well as the utensils necessary to cook them. Sasuke frowned at the sight.

The woman left after whispering something in Kakashi's ear, which he replied to with one of his enigmatic eye-smiles (it's odd how expressive a single eye can be) and they both saw the waitress depart, Sasuke finding himself following the hypnotic movements of her hips. He hadn't paid attention the last time, but the skirt of the uniform the waitress wore was surprisingly short…

Just went to further demonstrate the oddness of the place, he imagined. Regardless, he turned back to Kakashi. "Genjutsu are useless against a Sharingan, you know." Sasuke said, flashing his eyes at the silver haired Shinobi, grabbing a cup of tea from the tray and taking a sip.

"It was worth a try." Kakashi said, shrugging.

"Which means that hiding whatever information you have is important." Sasuke said. Kakashi was making no attempt at disguising said fact, most likely in an attempt to discourage Sasuke from further seeking the truth. Uncomfortable though the man might be, Sasuke needed the truth. He needed to know why…

This could be the piece that would finally make the puzzle click. Given the way most people looked at Uzumaki, it had to be something that made the civilians avoid him like the plague.

"I don't even have authorization to tell you." Kakashi said. "The very existence of S rank secrets is a secret in itself. I could be punished for revealing that much, you know." The man said, as his hands skillfully began to separate the ingredients into smaller portions, which he then began to gather.

Sasuke stopped paying attention to the movement of his hands. He was, in fact, learning a lot from Kakashi through such a simple conversation. Every movement Kakashi made while preparing his food was filled with unnecessary movements that drew the eye. The waving of the silver colored knife reflected the light and forced Sasuke to focus on it, from the instinct born of a decade of watching out for sharp objects since he got his first kunai.

"You're getting better." Kakashi informed, catching on to the fact that Sasuke was aware of the distraction tactics.

"What I find odd is that you're turning this into a lesson when you haven't taught us anything so far." Sasuke stated, calmly sipping his tea.

Kakashi smirked under his mask. "Do I even have a need to, Sasuke? You three… are the best team I could possibly have asked for. You help each other progress. You work together to achieve a common goal. You have what your clan has taught you and you share it with your teammates. To be quite frank, I don't think I'm as good a teacher as you are." The jounin freely admitted. "After all, I was at a loss on what to do to break Sakura out of the fangirl complex and you went and did it in a single morning."

Sasuke smiled at the praise, but nonetheless continued to focus and maintain his mind in the game.

"I will take whichever chances I get to teach you something you guys can't teach each other. You're all just about ready to begin training for the Chunin exams, so…"

This caused Sasuke to raise an eyebrow. But he did not ask further. He knew what the man was doing. Dangling an important piece of information that was ultimately harmless so that Sasuke pounced on it and stopped caring about his original question. Were he to be quite frank, he'd have told Kakashi to go fuck himself but before that he should answer the goddamn question.

So far, all he knew was that it was an S rank secret which, admittedly, explained why the man was hesitant to just tell Sasuke about it. He had also said that he didn't have the authorization to tell anyone about it. The Hokage most likely had the reason, but Sasuke would not be capable of prying the information from the Hokage, who would question why he knew it was an S rank secret at all and why he knew that there was something odd about Naruto beyond being, well, Naruto.

This would lead him to Kakashi who would most likely be punished along with Team 7… Which made it a no go.

Sasuke hummed in thought and decided to bite the bait that the jounin was dangling in front of him, because even if he was more interested in the secret, for the moment it was clear that Kakashi was unwilling to share it. "Chunin exams?" he asked, after a few moments of doubt. "You're signing us up."

It didn't take long for Kakashi to nod. "You guys are pretty much ready to take them, at the very least. I don't know if you'd all get promoted but I have faith that you'd at the very least get to the finals and obtain valuable experience." He explained, already knowing that Sasuke would ask for an explanation why he'd sign them up. "We have… just about five months to prepare for the chunin exams. If I have my way, by that point you will be put into the exam as ringers, rather than as participants, with pretty much guaranteed promotions."

"Ringers?" Sasuke asked, now well and truly curious.

"Genin teams that are far above the average level of the competition and are more a display of a village's power than a chance for them to earn experience." Kakashi said, sounding again as conversational as ever.

"Rookie teams entering the exams are rare." Sasuke stated, accepting the plate that Kakashi offered him and placing it in front of himself, grabbing the chopsticks and preparing to eat.

"Rookie teams that take their first C rank on their first week as a team are unique. You know how many times that has happened?" Asked Kakashi, raising his visible eyebrow and taking a piece of food between his chopsticks. "Just once." He said.

Sasuke looked down towards his plate and grabbed a piece of meat of god knows what animal and took it into his mouth. When he directed his eyes at Kakashi again, the man's chopsticks were empty again, though his plate was missing a few items that it'd had before. He forced back the need to laugh at the sight of his teacher wiping his goddamn mask.

"You guys are going to parade Konoha's strength in front of every important noble amongst our allies so I'll train you all hard. This doesn't mean that we'll stop taking missions, of course, but we're mostly gonna stop taking D ranks since they're pointless as a team building exercise." Kakashi admitted, scratching the back of his neck absent mindedly.

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "You don't sound happy about that."

"I'm not. Watching you guys suffer taking a D Rank is one of my favorite pastimes." The jounin rather shamelessly admitted, giving Sasuke an eye smile.

Sasuke was left to glare at him impotently, for being a jackass, while the man made it a point to show how unthreatened he was. Sasuke's eyes were, once again driven towards his food as he continued to eat Kakashi's surprisingly half-way decent cuisine. Again, Kakashi was wiping his mask when he turned his eyes back up

The Uchiha wanted to question Kakashi further, but he didn't know how. How could he managed to word his question in a way that, while seriously bending, wouldn't break the spirit of the rule he was given? Perhaps… Perhaps there was something he could use as a thinly veiled attempt. "Do either Sakura or Naruto know we're being signed for the Chunin exams?"

"I haven't had the time to talk with them, but I'm sure Naruto knows, at least." Kakashi said, offering Sasuke an eye smile. So Kakashi was playing that game. Careful, wasn't he? A bit unnecessary, but then again, Kakashi had turned this whole thing into a lesson in the many ways in which one can dominate a conversation without the other party even knowing and that, at least, Sasuke could see clearly.

A lesson in subtlety probably wasn't something far off from what the man who Sasuke was starting to respect more and more as a teacher, though he still was a ways off from getting anywhere near the same respect the academy teachers got, probably intended to leave with him. "I guess I'd have to relay the information to them, then?"

Kakashi nodded, taking a moment to sigh and take a deep breath. "Keep an open mind, Sasuke. I don't think that he'd tell you even if he wanted to. You know how he is with words."

"Yet he talked when you ordered him to…" Sasuke was purposefully leaving out the fact that Naruto had willingly talked to him before, although only once and he hadn't repeated the feat ever since.

"He's an obedient, cute little genin, isn't he?" Kakashi said, offering an eye smile.

Again, this was probably Kakashi's cue for him to think of something deeper. A hint. Naruto followed orders without fail, Sasuke had never seen him outright refuse an order from an authority figure. He had seen him ignore the existence of people before, but never gone against an order or willingly broke a rule.

Sasuke frowned at this bit of information. Before, Uzumaki Naruto had earned his interest due to the mysteries surrounding him everywhere but… Sasuke had begun to loathe the web of secrets that surrounded his teammate. He had begun to hate the fact that an innocent boy was surrounded in secrets that he most likely couldn't tell him about.

He hated the fact that it was likely that Naruto had already been involved in whatever it was that the S rank secret entailed since before Sasuke met him. And it was probably the only thing bad enough to cause him to turn into what he had been when Sasuke had first met him and, to a degree, still was.

Kakashi left the money to pay for the meal and the service, such as it was, and got up to leave.

"… If anyone has a chance of prying anything from that boy… it's you, Sasuke." Kakashi said, as they parted ways outside the rather discrete appearing restaurant front. Sasuke was certain that, hadn't Kakashi told him, he'd never have guessed the true purpose of this place.

The jounin placed a hand on his shoulder, causing Sasuke to stop just before he rushed off. He could not gain the information he sought from Kakashi, but he'd gained the confirmation that Naruto knew. He had wanted to go meet with Naruto ASAP. Sasuke looked up at the man questioningly, but Kakashi merely focused his eye on him for a full second. There was a weird emotion in the jounin's eye, and Sasuke wasn't certain that he could quite place it.

Without saying a word, Kakashi sighed and let him go.

This action just further confused Sasuke. He looked like he'd wanted to say something right then but had to hold it up for some reason. Regardless, Sasuke took to the rooftops. It was a common sight in Konoha to see Ninja taking the quick route rather than go amongst the civilians. It also saved the civilians trouble, Shinobi in a hurry were something quite bothersome to wandering merchants.

The fan on the back of his shirt brought Sasuke safe passage from the police patrols running around. The only member of the Uchiha clan to wear that exact same shirt was Sasuke himself, making it no mystery. For some reason, the rest of his clan went for darker colors instead of the bright blue that Sasuke sported.

In his opinion, it gave his clan an unnecessary sinister image, they were already badass enough with the police uniform and the almost universal dark and bishonen features that the entire freaking clan boasted.

He did not know where Naruto lived. No one did. He'd asked Iruka and all the teacher had said had been that Naruto had not filled in the camp when writing the form to access the academy. Sasuke had not tried to follow him and the blond had never invited him to his home.

However, Sasuke knew where Naruto spent the majority of his time. The training ground that only Naruto frequented, often said to be haunted by a demon or something. Sasuke didn't pay attention to the legend, but did appreciate that it kept the training ground solitary, for it allowed him and Naruto to train undisturbed.

It didn't take long for Sasuke to arrive at the training ground and confirm that his target was in its expected place. Congratulating himself on the accurate intelligence, Sasuke swooped down, taking a particularly long leap to land next to the site's entrance. He walked in, ignoring completely the odd looks sent his way as he did.

Without a moment of hesitation, he walked right up to the blond who was busy pounding the dummies, as he always did.

"Naruto…"

The word got the blond to stop training immediately. Sasuke was taken aback by the incredibly quick response he got. Usually, the boy did not stop training despite losing focus on it. Sasuke guessed that perhaps he was a tad, or perhaps much, closer to the boy than he'd been before and… it left a warm feeling in his chest.

Regardless, he squashed the feeling and focused himself on the task at hand. "We need to talk."

Naruto regarded him with a look and a posture that Sasuke interpreted as his way of telling him whether they'd talk right then and there or if he wanted to talk somewhere else. There was no need to head somewhere else, the training ground was deserted and people did not get close to it.

For this, he thanked the villagers' bigotry.

Sasuke went to the wall furthest away from the entrance and sat down, patting the spot next to him. "Come here." He ordered, sighing when Naruto complied without a word, but without much enthusiasm.

Sasuke himself wasn't completely happy with what he was about to do. Naruto certainly had his reasons to hold information back, but Sasuke needed to know. He needed to know because he wanted to help Naruto. They'd been friends for so long that Sasuke was wondering what secret would be so important that it'd be kept even from him.

"I… I want to know…" Sasuke began. How to phrase the question? How to phrase a question that he was certain would sound insulting and, well, unnecessarily direct, when he didn't want to make Naruto think that he would hate him for keeping said secret.

Naruto frowned. That was odd. Naruto rarely frowned. His non-expression looked more like he was bored than he was upset. Clearly, he understood the general gist of what Sasuke wanted to know. This confirmed to Sasuke that Naruto knew the secret that Kakashi had spoken about.

"Can you tell me?" Sasuke asked, looking at Naruto in the eye. He refrained from touching the boy because he didn't want to think he was being pushy. "If… If you don't want to… I'll understand. I won't pressure you."

Naruto frowned again, looking intently at the ground, hugging his own knees. "Promise." Naruto said, his voice even softer than usual.

"Promise what?"

The blond looked at him. "Promise you won't hate me." He said, looking at Sasuke with despair filled eyes. Sasuke almost crashed into a hundred pieces at the sight. He couldn't bear to see Naruto like that. It bears repeating to note that Sasuke finds it hard to reconcile the images he got from the blond.

On the one hand, was the Shinobi Naruto, the boy Sasuke found himself respecting and in awe of. The one who trained from sunrise to sun down, every day, despite missions.

On the other hand… was Naruto, the lonely little boy. Naruto was not truly alone. Not completely isolated. He had the Hokage. He had the Ichiraku family. He had Sasuke and his family. But even so… Sasuke was uncertain of how close those relations were. The Hokage was a very busy man who could not attend to the needs of a little boy, much less one who'd suffered enough to somehow end up like Naruto had.

The Uchiha clan's head family had welcomed Naruto in its entirety and the clan had warmed up to him over time, some even admiring his stoic demeanor, but even then, it was at most a casual relationship, since he met them only once in a while, what with everyone being incredibly busy all the time.

The Ichiraku family, likewise, had to work the entire day in order to survive. From the fact that they settled in one of the bad parts of the village, Sasuke could tell that they were not coasting through life on the large coffers coming from being an old and wealthy clan. Yet they were quite willing to actually offer Naruto, someone who ate truly ridiculous amounts of ramen (The few times Sasuke had accompanied Naruto to Ichiraku's had given him the insight to never tell his mother to cook ramen, no amount of it would ever satisfy the blond who had a black hole for a stomach when speaking about ramen), a sizable discount.

Kind as they were, there was only so much they could do.

Sasuke… was probably the closest relationship the orphan boy had. The blond would probably be utterly crushed if Sasuke ever betrayed his trust or turned to hate him. Finding himself in a familiar position, Sasuke nodded towards the blond. "I promise I will never, ever, hate you." Sasuke said, showing his hands to prove he was not crossing his fingers.

Naruto looked at the ground again. There was great hesitation in his eyes, for a few moments, before he removed his orange jacket (this one looked new… just where did Uzumaki get a goddamn Orange Jumpsuit, let alone spares of the damn thing!?) and then removed the white shirt under it (the shirt was also new).

This left a body that was curiously absent of marks. Sasuke was certain it'd been riddled with scars before. There weren't even marks to note the new ones he'd gotten. His regeneration had to be really powerful if there was absolutely no mark of there ever being a scar in only a week.

There was also a clear lack of the bandages that had once covered the entirety of Uzumaki's torso, though his upper body, along with his shoulders, remained covered with pristine white bandages. It kind of made Sasuke wonder why exactly someone would cover their body in bandages. Some Shinobi did it to have a ready source of bandages in case they ever proved necessary or to tape loose sleeves and pant legs, which helped whenever it came to running through difficult treks.

The blond took in a deep breath and clasped his hands together in front of his stomach, channeling chakra in a calm manner. In a few short seconds, black marks began to appear around the boy's navel, quickly growing to resemble undecipherable characters. They grew, changed and morphed, until they resembled a spiral in their arrangement.

Soon enough, lines from the symbol began to spread across Uzumaki's torso, forming nine different strands of characters that expanded away and then finished by curving into spirals of their own. It looked not unlike a collection of ink rivers fed by whirlpools that fed into a larger whirlpool. It was both an amazing and confusing sight.

Sasuke had never, ever, seen a seal that complex or majestic looking. It had to truly be a work of art beyond the abilities of most ninja gifted with sealing abilities. He himself only knew the barest basics of Fuuinjutsu, namely, that simply copying a seal is going to blow you up or make it misfire horribly, even if it's a harmless seal. These things are not to be taken lightly at all, which is why sealmasters are so few and so highly valued.

"What… what is that seal?" Sasuke asked, as Naruto put his shirt back on.

"I…" Naruto seemed doubtful.

Sasuke thought he might even now be doubting Sasuke's promise. This insulted him. Why would the blond think he'd hate him?

What could possibly be so damning about that seal? What could possibly move a person to hate someone so easily?

Naruto did not seem like someone who would doubt himself so much, so whatever it was, he had to be incredibly worried about it. Naruto grabbed his jacket and put it on, while Sasuke's inner debate raged with itself. The blond had actually moved a few steps away from the Uchiha, a clear sign to him that Naruto was fearing the worst.

The sting of guilt, soul crushing guilt, was starting to make Sasuke's chest hurt worse than if he'd been outright stabbed in the heart. He felt like a fucking scumbag for forcing Naruto to come out with as much as he had. The blond would have told him, wouldn't he? Naruto trusted him.

Why, then, did Naruto seem so much against telling him the truth? It only made Sasuke's curiosity burn all the more.

The Uchiha was wondering whether or not it'd be okay to keep pursuing the truth. Naruto had trusted him enough to know about the existence of the seal, and Sasuke was certain that with time, he'd be able to figure out just what was it. Even if he couldn't, he had his family to fall back on, and Itachi was sure to know.

As Hokage candidate, he was aware of pretty much every dirty little secret Konoha had to offer and Sasuke knew for a fact he was his elder brother's main weakness. He had gotten a bit rusty at pulling off the puppy dog eyes, but he could still manage them with a bit of work.

But… he did not want to go behind his best friend's back. He did not want to become a liar by telling Naruto he wouldn't push it if he didn't want to know. If Naruto did not want to tell him…

… Sasuke would back down. He cared more about keeping Naruto as a friend than about knowing this secret, ultimately. If it came down to that… well, he could live with his curiosity.

Seeing that Naruto would not continue the sentence he'd started, Sasuke stood up and tried to smile his best smile. He did not know if he managed it. All he could do, however, was to place a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder to turn him to face him. "You don't have to tell me." The Uchiha finally said. "When you're ready… I'll be waiting."

Naruto shook his head, taking a few steps back and shrinking into himself even further, pulling his bulky, slightly oversized jacket tightly against his body.

"I… I am… I am the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi No Youko."

* * *

This fic is classified as a friendship/general fic, because it is about the bonds that the particular main characters, Sasuke and Naruto, share. The story is about that bond. The fact that it has a plot, such as it is, is already stretching the limit of a purely-friendship based fic. Perhaps I should reclassify it as something else, probably adventure or something. The point is, Naruto and Sasuke are friends.

The exact nature of their friendship, however, is up for debate. I will provide the fuel, and whether you guys ignite the flames or not is entirely up to you. I like a story that can be interpreted in multiple different ways. This is something that a lot of people don't give credit to Kishimoto for. He gave us the setting, story and characters that we, the fanfiction writers, needed to create something of our own that is similar, yet different. Something that is inspired and based on Kishimoto's Naruto, yet fresh and new. With simple changes, we can create entirely new stories, we can give different lives to the characters and interpret them in different ways.

This is something I aspire to be capable of creating. A story where people can interpret it in the way that best suits them. For example, if you'd like to think that Naruto and Sasuke are in love, then all the power to you. But if you prefer to think they are merely very close friends, then that's all good as well. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and tastes, and I am trying to give people the opportunity to choose what they want to believe based on my words.

I know that the ship tease gets a bit heavy at times but... Forgive me, I just love teasing fangirls. I can't help it.

The reason I'm keeping tight lipped about pairings is that I want people to make up their own. I want people to work with the interactions I provide in my 'canon' and for you to have your own ideas upon it. I don't even mind if your ideas even go against what's 'canonical' in my story because, again, that is how you think and/or believe things should be based on their interactions or lack thereof. I can say that I'm not averse to going against canon when it comes down to it, but I will not needlessly change things, or change things without a real reason to.

Take, for instance, Sakura and Ino. Ino is still the same as she was in canon, mostly, because there is nothing that is motivating her to change or forcing her to become different. She has the same team, because there is nothing that could have changed the reason why she was placed on that team to begin with. If I made her act differently, it would be because of an event that happened in the changed course of history that made her become different than what she was in canon, and it would be explained why.

As for my chronic inability to use commas... I hope that's not such a huge problem anymore. As for my inability to use the semicolon... Well, I don't even know what that is. Is it ';' - that? It kind of looks like a mouse with an awesome goatee to me...

I'm not a native english speaker and I'm kinda embarrassed to admit that I'm not really very good at writing english, my repertory of words is actually rather limited and if you read this in one sitting and quickly, you will notice that I tend to reuse words. That's because I run out of vocabulary to utilize.

I have trouble describing clothes, as well, since I kinda slacked off during english classes that taught that part (because I basically coasted through that due to my experience with english, namely, playing lots of videogames in english that forced me to learn or be left out of the story), so I do apologize if my descriptions are rather simplistic or completely absent. I felt there really was no point at describing the characters' appearences outside of Naruto, since everyone except him looks exactly the same as they do in canon. Naruto's only difference is that he's logically shorter and has little to no muscle despite the ridiculous amounts of training he undergoes (this, like many other things, will be explained in the story).

As for bashing... Well, that depends on your definition of what bashing is. To me, it's abuse of a character that is not justified in-story. Someone who is an asshole turning into a cosmic chewtoy? That's karmic retribution. Someone who has done nothing wrong yet suffers constantly because God hates them? That's what I think bashing is. And that includes making an unjust and unfair portrayal of someone's character, without explaining exactly what made that person into such a jerkwad to begin with.

Even the biggest asshole can be redeemed, folks. Yes, that means that even Sasuke can be redeemed. The cost, however, keeps getting steeper the more you plunge past the moral event horizon.

I don't like what became of Sasuke after part 1 was finished. He had great potential to be a tragic anti hero, but he jumped off the slippery slope and became a complete monster and frankly a boring character that is more of a plot device than an actual character. However, that does not mean that I cannot portray Sasuke in a likable manner. Well, I hope he's a likable character, anyway. What I intend to do is redeem him, not only in my eyes but in yours aswell, for what I perceive as his flaws and show that he's ultimately a nice person who got corrupted by the horrible things that happened to him. Without these things turning him into the hate-filled avenger, I believe Sasuke would've grown up into what I've described already.

If you weren't interested in my rants, then I apologize for needlessly holding your attention with them. Nevertheless, I do appreciate that you took the time to read my thoughts on the matters that might or might not concern you.


	6. Obligatory Tournament Arc

Soooooooooooooooooooooo I'm late.

Delivered a chapter a day late... Well, these are done as inspiration comes, and this one was hard to write, I'll say that much.

As always, thank y'all for the reviews, and as usual, concerns will be answered at the bottom! If I didn't answer your concerns, then you didn't voice them (loud enough), don't fear doing so, I'm all ears! Yes, I read with my ears.

* * *

Sasuke blinked.

Now it all made sense.

Sasuke knew what a Jinchuuriki was. A human sacrifice used to hold back one of the tailed beasts, imprisoned in the human host's chakra and mind. The beast, in turn, involuntarily granted its host some of its power for use and when the host grew powerful enough, they could forcefully take the rest of the beast's power.

Konoha had never had a jinchuuriki before, though. Konoha had always prided itself on being the greatest of the five villages without having to fall back on one of the most powerful weapons in the continent. Yet…

…Here he was, the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, standing right in front of him.

The seal was there to hold the creature within Naruto's chakra coils, suppressed by his will.

Now everything made sense. The ridiculous regeneration was most likely one of the boons granted to Naruto by the Kyuubi, as well as the ridiculous endurance and toughness. It also explained why he was an outcast. The adult population… must have known who he was. Bijuu are beings of chakra, they can't die.

The generally accepted theory was that the Fourth Hokage had sealed it within himself and then had the Shinigami reap both their souls at once, causing the rest of the Kyuubi's power to disperse since there was no will driving it. But… was such a thing even possible? Nobody knew, but the Hokage was the greatest sealmaster in history, so… nobody doubted it. If it could be done, then it stands for reason that the Yondaime had been the one to pull it off.

Or perhaps, nobody had questioned it because everyone knew the truth except the younger generations. Everyone knew who the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi was. Everyone knew that the little blond boy who rarely if ever talked and who almost always had his head buried in a book when not training…

The fact that the training ground he used so much was said to be haunted by a demon… The rumor wasn't referring to an old folk's tale, it was simply because the jinchuuriki used it a lot.

At that point, Sasuke had come to a startling realization.

Uzumaki Naruto was a weapon.

Uzumaki Naruto was not a human being and had never been allowed to act as such.

All that Naruto had been allowed to do were the things that would help him further grow as a weapon. Exercising. That was all that Naruto ever did. Whether it be his mind or his body, Naruto was always, always training. Perhaps clearer heads had figured that, under such stress, the will powering the seal would break.

That would explain how and why Naruto was so close to the Hokage. Perhaps it was guilt that drove the Hokage to look out for the small blond boy, or perhaps he was simply close to the boy to insure his loyalty, whether it be to the village or just to the man himself.

Sasuke didn't care. His opinion of the Hokage, of his entire village, had dropped immensely. The majority of the village shunned and ignored the blond boy that was even now trying to hide within his clothes. They could only see the demon sealed within instead of the person holding it back. Ungrateful bastards, the lot of them.

Naruto ducked his head, his bangs falling over and covering what was visible of his face, and took a few steps further back.

Sasuke schooled his features, the shock and anger he was feeling must have certainly shown up in his face. Most likely the blond had taken things the wrong way and assumed he'd been angry at him. Taking a deep breath, Sasuke struggled to calm himself, taking a step forward.

Naruto merely stood in place, though Sasuke could tell the blond was itching to bolt. Thinking on the boy's reactions, he guessed that he had to have been betrayed before for the reason inked in his stomach. Otherwise, he would not have been so incredibly terrified of Sasuke hating him for it.

"Hey…" Sasuke called, trying his damnedest to sound as unthreatening as possible. "… I promised, didn't I?"

Naruto blinked.

The wind had started to pick up some time ago, and the afternoon was beginning to give way to dusk and the evening. Despite it being summer, today was not a particularly warm day and the night was shaping up to be a chilly affair. The wind was particularly strong now, however, which was what caused a momentary distraction, softly whistling as it ran through the wide open space that was cleared in the training ground for spars.

Sasuke smiled a disarming smile, the best he could. "You're not the Kyuubi, Naruto. You're its container, its warden." He said, taking another step forward. Looking the blond over, it seemed that he'd calmed down considerable.

His eyes, before filled with anxiety, anticipation and the hopeless despair of one too jaded to believe in people anymore, had changed completely. The blond's posture had relaxed, as well, and it reflected in his eyes. There was hope in them. There was hope that Sasuke was different. Sasuke took another step forward until they were just a step away from each other.

"I don't hate you." Sasuke informed the boy. "Even if you were the fox itself… it would change nothing." He said.

Naruto shrunk into himself, looking at the floor, flinching. Sasuke disregarded the reaction and pulled the small boy into a hug. It took very long for Naruto to relax and simply remain there, though Sasuke had lost track of the time by then. He once again found himself having the strange role of serving as a prodigy shinobi's ground cable.

Absent mindedly, he noted that he would probably have great success working as a Shinobi shrink or something.

* * *

"Did you know about Naruto?" Sasuke asked, his gaze hard as steel and cold as ice. His eyes roamed the entire table, settling on no one and inspecting every member of his family as they stopped eating and turned to regard him.

His father was the first to answer his question. "That depends." The man said.

"What happened, Sasuke?" his mother questioned, sounding and looking as unpleasant and uncomfortable as she probably felt. Sasuke, however, did not care about the fact that he might make them uncomfortable.

It hadn't been only Naruto and his sensei who'd hidden the information from him, and both of the other ones had eventually led to him learning about said secret. His family, however, seemed more intent on silently asking each other how to proceed in this case. "How long did you think it'd take me to learn?" He asked, turning to Itachi.

"A little more." The Elite Jounin answered, not even bothering to stop eating as he did. "I figured that I would have to tell you when you started suspecting, but it seems you have managed to find out about Naruto-kun's secret without my aid." He continued. No sense in pretending he was uncomfortable by answering his brother's questions.

Of course Itachi knew. He was the Hokage's most likely successor. "Why… why keep it a secret?"

"It is not only kept a secret from the younger generation, it's kept a secret from the world, Sasuke. Nobody is to learn that Konoha has the greatest of the nine Bijuu as its secret weapon." The Uchiha Prodigy said, setting his chopsticks down and finally deigning to look at Sasuke.

"So, then, you too think he's only good to be a weapon, then…" Sasuke said, shaking his head. "What about the things you told me? About how a Shinobi shouldn't be just an emotionless weapon?"

"The circumstances are different, Sasuke." Itachi said, narrowing his eyes. "By the time I had any say in it, Naruto was already beyond saving." He added.

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Itachi merely shook his head.

The Uchiha Family's dinner, a rare occasion in which they were together, was a quiet affair that night. Nobody wished to speak, the tension being too thick. Sasuke knew that his brother was hiding something, and he knew that it had to do with what had been done to Naruto to turn him into the weapon he was.

It was odd for Itachi to outright refuse to answer a question. Itachi had never before refused a question without giving Sasuke a reason why he didn't answer, though 'classified' had become one of the elder boy's favorite words over time.

That night, as Sasuke tried to sleep, he found himself thinking more and more about how everything in the puzzle made sense now. So long had he been completely confused by the mere existence of someone like Naruto and now everything made sense.

Whatever horrible upbringing had left Naruto as broken as he was… Sasuke decided to take it upon himself to make up for it. Naruto did not deserve what had been done to him. He'd been a hero whose existence alone saved the village, and they'd repaid him by turning him into a weapon at their service and then hated him for it.

Jinchuuriki were feared.

Feared for their power, feared for their natural talents and feared for their tailed beasts. With good reason, Naruto would be feared even more than all the other Jinchuuriki. The Kyuubi was by far the greatest and most powerful of the tailed beasts and supposedly the most intelligent of them, as well, though Sasuke didn't know if that was true, since he had no way to compare.

The greatest Shinobi monument to destruction known was the Valley Of The End, a valley carved by the clash between Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama at the height of their power. What is even today one of the greatest accomplishments in destruction…

… Is something that a tailed beast can replicate by dragging one of its tails through the land.

There was a reason why the Bijuu were as feared as they were, when the weakest of them could probably destroy an entire village if they weren't countered with a sealmaster. With only one art capable of holding them back, an art that was complicated and required many supplementary abilities to be properly used, they were basically a ninja village's worst nightmare in a war.

The only thing that could truly counter a Jinchuuriki was another jinchuuriki. Or a whole bunch of high level ninja. To make a comparison, Iwa had suffered massive losses in manpower during the war, yet had left the war relatively unharmed infrastructure-wise thanks to the fact that it had not one but two experienced Jinchuuriki who could control their tailed beasts to some extent.

The current Mizukage was also a Jinchuuriki and had squashed the rebellion of an entire clan on his own almost effortlessly, despite the clan in question being known for its bloodthirsty nature and their prowess in combat.

Sasuke had also heard rumors about the Guardian of Kumo, who had complete control over his tailed beast and was supposed to be ridiculously strong, to the point that even other jinchuuriki were afraid of him.

But that man… only had the eight tails and, despite being only second in power to the Kyuubi… it still paled in comparison to it.

Konoha had the Kyuubi, the most powerful of the tailed beasts by a long shot. Yet… Sasuke found himself entertaining treasonous thoughts. But then again, who could blame him, at that point? If this is what it meant to be as loyal to Konoha as possible, Sasuke preferred having faulty loyalty.

After all, if it meant sacrificing his best, and perhaps only, friend just so Konoha could have a weapon…

Konoha could go fuck itself.

* * *

Sakura knew there was something odd with her teammates that morning. Lately, Sasuke had been tense around Naruto for some reason, which, given that Sasuke hovered around Naruto most of the time, was actually quite obvious. The pinkette had known the blond only for a month, having basically ignored his existence during the academy (quite an easy feat), and thus she didn't know if there was something different around him.

Whatever had gotten Sasuke in such a mood had certainly something to do with the blond boy.

Yet… that morning, when they arrived at training, Sasuke seemed to be completely okay… While she was glad that whatever had been eating him had passed, she was wondering what it had been in the first place.

Kakashi showed up in a flurry of leaves and smoke, startling Sakura. Because he was three hours early that day.

"Okay, boys and Sakura, it's time to begin training for real now!" Kakashi said, and Sakura could practically see the smirk under his mask. "I let you guys train yourselves to get acquainted with each other's abilities and to improve your general physique until you could actually survive what I have in mind for your training."

Surely, that was an exaggeration. Kakashi was a lazy bastard. He probably got a dressing down from someone who told him to stop fucking around with Team 7 and actually train them and now he would train them as harshly as they could so they'd stop complaining about it. Well, Sakura wasn't sure, but she had actually complained about this to her teammates, quite loudly, while waiting for Kakashi every morning, act which involved either getting the tar beaten out of her in a spar or getting herself exhausted when it came to the day's selection of D Rank Missions, and if they finished those early, then she'd train some more.

It might be murder on her limbs, but hey, she was now very good friends with Sasuke and, she hoped, with Naruto too because of it, so… fair trade.

"What do you mean, sensei?" the resident pinkette asked.

"I mean that you guys are ready to begin actual Shinobi training, the way I was trained! First, tree climbing! By the end of today you'll either be experts on it or will have gotten acquainted with the floor in an intimate fashion." The silver haired jounin said in the tone that a sage might use when dispensing wise advise.

"Uhm… sensei, we can climb trees. They taught it at the academy…" Sakura said, blinking.

"Yes, but you have to use your hands for that, Sakura. It's useful when you can't use chakra for whatever reason." Kakashi explained, raising one finger. "This is why we're training on a forest today!"

Sakura had found it odd that last night she'd received a letter, somehow, from Kakashi that told her they'd be gathering at a different training ground from usual. "So, we're gonna climb with just our feet and chakra?"

"Yep! What you have to do is fairly simple, apply a layer of chakra between you and the tree bark that will stick to it. This also works in the ground. If done properly, you will have perfect traction in any surface and the ability to give physics the middle finger." Kakashi continued the explanation, turning around and walking next to the closest tree. The trees here were particularly thick and tall, although nowhere near as huge as the average tree in the Forest Of Death, from what Sakura knew.

These kinds of trees had been the Shodaime Hokage's favorite way of warding off invaders. After all, these things could withstand incredible amounts of force and their size had made spotting Konoha in the forest quite hard, although back then the village was small enough to actually be called a village in the first place, while these days it was more of a city.

Sasuke looked thoughtful. "This exercise is similar to the technique we use to leap from tree to tree." Sakura could see how it ran in the same principle, though maintaining the layer of chakra for more than an instant would probably be harder. Not to mention, there was also the factor of gravity to consider in vertical movement.

"Yes, though that's relatively simpler. You will need to regulate the amount of chakra you pour, since while it doesn't matter if the branch you jump off breaks behind you, here if you don't properly regulate the chakra you will be blasted off or fall off the surface you're clinging to." Explained Kakashi, again with the sagely tone. "Go ahead, give it a try. A running start might help the first few tries until you get sticking to the tree right."

Team 7 gave a nod and each went to one side of the ridiculously thick tree. Kakashi took a few steps back and began to count backwards from three, stopping at two and yelling go instead of one.

This spurred all three of them on, prompting their rush up the three.

Sakura noticed that it was surprisingly easy to maintain a steady amount of chakra in her feet. Her chakra had always been particularly responsive and easy to control, though recently she'd noticed a marked increase in difficulty when it came to controlling it. True, her chakra control was still as close to perfect as you get before entering Tsunade territory, but she'd gone from the ability to regulate it pretty much drop by drop almost perfectly to slipping every now and then.

She noticed this problem when one of her feet slipped from the bark for an instant before she caught it again. Regardless, her focus was absolute and she was quickly able to reach one of the branches that stood nearly twenty feet from the ground. It was about as thick as Sasuke at the shoulders and just about as long as Kakashi was tall. Meaning, a very big branch.

Standing on it was as easy as standing on the ground, given the rough texture of the tree's bark.

When she looked down, however, she saw that her teammates had not performed as well as she had. A few feet off the ground, there was a massive portion of bark entirely missing, looking as if someone had exploded the tree inside out and taken out the bark that way and below it was Naruto, standing on his feet and looking… as he always did.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was also on his feet on the ground, though he seemed far more upset with his performance than Naruto was.

"Well, it was to be expected, Sakura does have the best chakra control out of all of us. Better than mine, in fact." Kakashi admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "Anyway, Sasuke, you either used too little chakra or lost control of it so it didn't stick to the bark. You have reserves to spare, but don't overdo it, either." The jounin said, wagging his finger at Sasuke. "Naruto, meanwhile, you did the complete opposite. I don't think you have to worry about using too little chakra, so use the smallest amount you can and work on lowering it if you keep blasting off."

Both nodded.

"I'll leave you guys to this exercise, meanwhile, Sakura, I want you to run up the tree and then work on sliding down while still sticking to the tree. It sounds complicated but it isn't, you just have to find the right amount of chakra and keep a steady stream. Don't go too high, though, you might hurt yourself on the way down." He added, looking at the girl who nodded. "Once you've got the gist of that down, I'll teach you how to turn and increase or decrease the speed of your movement."

It was clear that her superb control was already giving her a lead when Kakashi started instructing them in the matters of chakra that would eventually lead into jutsu practice. Sakura squashed the smug feeling rising in her chest that told her she should gloat about that, her teammates had never mocked her for being physically pathetic compared to them.

"Get to it, Team 7, I have to go annoy the other jounin sensei!" Kakashi barked, vanishing in a swirl of leaves and smoke just as he'd come.

Sakura smiled as she put a hand against the tree. Her brain automatically told her that trying out the exercise in full would be foolish, at that point, since she'd most likely either stick her feet to the bark and break her ankles from the momentum or slip off entirely while experimenting to find the perfect amount of chakra necessary.

So she decided to, instead, stick her hand to the bark and try to move it. If she used too much chakra, she'd stick to the bark and be unable to move. If she used too little, movement would be unhindered. She had to find an amount of chakra that permitted movement, but still offered resistance.

It was all in the thickness of the chakra layer between her hand and the tree, and for Sakura, who was used to handling minuscule amounts of chakra, it proved to be child's play to cycle through different amounts until she found one she was satisfied with.

When she found one she considered good enough, she worked on manipulating that exact same amount of chakra through the tenketsu on her feet. This gave the comical sight of Sakura appearing to swipe the branch she was standing on with her feet for several minutes as she worked on it.

It did not help that every once in a while, the tree would shake from the efforts of her teammates to climb up, though she took it in stride and decided against moving to another tree to go on with the exercise. It'd help her deal with disruptions in her focus better, since she wouldn't always have the time to focus if she ever planned to use this in a real life situation instead of solely in training, where there were no distractions.

Once she was happy with the amount of chakra she manipulated in her feet, she stood against the tree and stuck her hands and feet to it, swiftly lowering the amount of chakra in the layer that separated her from the tree to begin sliding down.

She noticed the purpose of the exercise almost instantly. Gravity made it harder to maintain a steady speed, because your velocity increased as you fell. The exercise was two-layered, in one hand, you have to manipulate your chakra so that it's thick enough to stick to the bark, but not thick enough to remain completely fixed to it.

And then you had to alter the thickness of the chakra layer in it so that you did not lose control of your descent. Kakashi had said he'd help her control her speed later, but there was nothing stopping her from working on it as she went. Otherwise, the landings would prove unpleasant. Unlike tree climbing, with which she surmised she would have no problem, this exercise would probably be rather complicated for her to master.

When she did make it back down, she noticed that one of her teammates, who else could it be but Naruto, sported a few scratches here and there and that he was barefoot. There was also a pair of sandals that had suffered from one too many explosions discarded at a near distance from where Naruto was currently standing.

In hindsight, it was probably easier to stick to the tree barefoot, even if it'd hurt more when the inevitable fuck up came.

The sound of steps against hard wood came to a sudden stop, and Naruto quickly tackled her from out of the way of a Sasuke shaped missile, which she only saw when the dust cloud dispersed and she noticed Sasuke's pained expression. He'd probably dropped from a big height and hadn't thought of rolling with the landing.

"Damn…" Sasuke muttered, standing up and stretching his legs. "This is harder than I'd thought."

"Well, you guys have a lot of chakra, larger amounts of chakra make it progressively harder to control it." Sakura reasoned. "Compared to the both of you, I have a minuscule amount of chakra, so it's easy for me to control it."

Sasuke nodded. "You have more chakra than before, though, right?"

"Yes. A proper diet and physical exercise do help." Sakura admitted. She'd been shocked to know that she only had herself to blame for her pitiful chakra reserves before, neglecting physical exercise and dieting so as to remain 'thin'. Naruto stomped all over her reasoning: He trained like a madman and was the thinnest person Sakura knew.

Sasuke trained zealously, as well, and was not a muscle-bound monstrosity, but rather lean and, even if she chastised herself for thinking it, quite attractive to her eyes.

She had yet to grow sizable muscles and her skin remained soft to the touch, although she understood that it wouldn't be long until her body started to resemble the athletic body of a Kunoichi more than her cute civilian little girl body.

"Got any advise for us? You're kind of our authority when it comes to chakra control." Sasuke admitted, sounding completely honest and earnest. It was strange to see Sasuke asking for assistance so openly. Before, even when she offered to help him study for difficult tests, he's just brush her off without even considering her offers.

Then again, every stinking time she'd offered him aid had been in an effort to get closer to him to be his girlfriend, while now she wanted to be closer to him to be his friend.

"Not really." Sakura said, frowning. "What applies to me most likely won't apply to you." She admitted, falling deeply into thought. "And the way I thought about it probably would overcomplicate things for you."

Sasuke took no offense to the thought that Sakura would have understood something far more complex than he. Sasuke was more talented for the Shinobi arts, yes, but Sakura was far more talented in academic pursuit than he and she had probably approached the problem of controlling her chakra very differently from what he would have. "Humor me." Sasuke said.

Sakura sighed. "I had the chakra layer under my foot formed before I started climbing the tree." That was already a difference from what Sasuke did. He actually formed the layer when he put his first step into the tree, using the running start to give himself the purchase he needed to keep going up.

Sasuke nodded, seeing the wisdom in the approach..

"I also calculated the exact amount of chakra to use, which I can only do because my control is so good. You just have to find the amount that works for you and work on making it instinctual to use that. The first part was easy for me, but it'll probably be a lot more complicated for you." Sakura said, leaning back and tapping her chin, pondering how to proceed. "Then again, I'm not really sure, I'm just going from how I did it."

Sasuke nodded. "Makes sense, I guess." Sasuke said. "So I just have to remain pending of it until it's a reflex."

"Pretty much, yes." Sakura confirmed. "Did you get that, Naruto?"

The blond merely nodded. Sakura smiled and got back to the exercise that Kakashi had probably made up on the spot for her, considering she'd made the prior one pointless.

She made it a point, however, to have all three start at once and race to the top. She might have eventually been defeated on her race to the top, but that was only on their twentieth try, and she was the only one not bruised from meeting the land.

Though her feet hurt a bit from a few harsh landings.

* * *

While his team was training, Kakashi was doing something far more important than being there for moral support that they didn't need.

Namely, he had gone to find Asuma and Kurenai, the teachers for the other two passing teams this year (a particularly pathetic academy graduation year, he imagined, to have failed two thirds of the class, then again, some jounin just didn't want to be teachers), which he hadn't managed to do thus far.

Until he randomly came across Asuma while he was observing his team weed the same garden that Kakashi had taken as his team's first mission. It was, however, going significantly slower with the fact that neither the Nara or Akimichi seemed willing to actually put in some effort. The Yamanaka was doing it mostly on her own, though she did get distracted by yelling at her teammates every once in a while.

"Yo." Kakashi said, making a dramatic Shunshin right next to Asuma, startling him into dropping his cigarette from his mouth. Showing why he was a jounin, he caught it in the air and brought it back to his mouth, before smoothing his every feature so it seemed he'd never been startled, all of which was done fast enough to prevent his genin from noticing he'd been caught by surprise at all. Just goes to show what someone is willing to do to protect their image.

"Hello, Kakashi." Asuma said, sounding more than a tad annoyed. He was trying to act like he was actually paying attention to his team while imagining Kurenai in a skimpy little bikini. How exactly Kakashi knew that he was is better left for another time, let's just say he did and move on. "What do you want?" he grumbled.

"Um… Sensei… who's that guy?" One of Asuma's genin, the Yamanaka if Kakashi guessed right, asked, making Kakashi take notice of the fact that they'd assembled in front of the duo of jounin. He promptly dismissed said thought and focused on Asuma again.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your cute little genin?" Kakashi asked, which he recognized made him sound more than a tad creepy. It made his own genin furious, but it probably wouldn't sit well with the new ones, unless they knew he was actually harmless as far as that goes.

"Kids, this is Kakashi." Asuma said, letting out a puff of smoke as he did. "This is an example of the kind of Shinobi you don't want to be." The jounin sensei explained, once again turning to Kakashi. "Now tell me what you want."

Kakashi pouted under his mask, knowing that Asuma would somehow be able to tell he was pouting. Ninja tricks, they say. In truth, Kakashi was just that expressive with his single eye. Blame it on him having lots of practice. "Maa, I'll spill." Kakashi said, eye-smiling at Asuma. "I've been thinking that we need to have a bonding exercise between our teams, just so they get used to working with each other outside of their teams."

Asuma looked completely deadpan at Kakashi. "You're suggesting joint training? You just want me to do your work for you."

Kakashi shook his head. "Tempting though it might be, not quite." Kakashi said, rather shamelessly admitting how lazy he was. "That's next month." He added. "What I mean to do is organize a tournament between our Genin, to see how far along they've come since the academy and how they stand next to each other."

"That's… surprisingly thorough planning for you, Kakashi." Asuma said, raising one eyebrow. "What's in it for the winner of this little tournament?"

"Well…" Kakashi said, rubbing his masked chin. "I hadn't thought that far. If my team wins, you'll help Naruto with the wind affinity I'm almost entirely certain he has, I'll ask Kurenai for help tutoring Sakura in Genjutsu."

Asuma raised one eyebrow. "Sounds fair enough." Kakashi inwardly cheered, since the only other wind user he knew who was good enough to teach he wouldn't allow anywhere within spitting distance of Naruto. "If I win, you will teach all three of my students for a week, no laziness allowed."

Kakashi laughed. "I accept that." He said, making Asuma raise an eyebrow in seeming concern. Kakashi's confidence in his team must have scared the bearded jounin. "So… how about tomorrow?"

"Sounds good." Asuma replied, nodding. Kakashi grinned mentally, because Asuma did not know the shit he was walking right into. Kakashi had full confidence in his team's abilities and their chances in something like this.

"Okay, now, do you know where to find Kurenai?"

Asuma shook his head.

Kakashi sighed. He'd get back to his kids later than he'd expected to. Ah, well, more time to read smut in public. He was certain that any minute now Sakura would snap and shred his precious, so his reading time had been diminished greatly.

He briefly heard the team's kunoichi's shriek of rage at the laziness of her comrades before he took to the rooftops, his nose beginning to twitch as it searched for Kurenai's scent, filtering every other smell in the area.

Finding it, he set off in her general direction, leaving most people wondering how the hell someone could make such ridiculously accurate jumps (roof to lamp to roof) while reading. That, my friends, is what being a jounin is all about.

Once he arrived at a training ground that was more in line with a simple park, lacking any training facilities whatsoever, he noticed Kurenai standing over Kiba, who was rubbing his head and crouched down.

A few steps away was the team's Hyuuga rubbing the bridge of her nose in apparent exasperation and the team's Aburame trying his best to hide the small shakes of his body that indicate he was laughing inside. "Pervert?" Kakashi asked, appearing next to Kiba in a blur of speed, foregoing the chance to Shunshin and do a dramatic entrance.

"Oh, great, they're multiplying!" Kurenai stated, throwing her hands up. "What is with dog using ninja and perversion?" She asked, palming her forehead.

"What a way to say hi to an old comrade! I'm hurt!" Kakashi said, placing both hands in his heart and leaning back, tears brimming from his lone eye.

"No you're not." Kurenai said, deadpan.

"I totally was." Kakashi said, folding his arms over his chest and pouting, knowing full well how much it annoyed Kurenai.

Much to his disappointment, however, Kurenai did not continue on their little game, instead, turning around to face the rest of her team. Apparently, the Inuzuka of the team had snuck away from the two somewhere during the confrontation and had approached his teammates to discreetly get away from Kurenai's righteous female fury. "Guys, this is Hatake Kakashi, Elite Jounin and pervert." Said Kurenai. "Kakashi, those are Hinata, Shino and Kiba." She said, pointing at every one of them in turn.

"Yo." Kiba, the scruffy looking brown haired boy, said, waving.

Shino, the boy with the high collar and shades, nodded his head.

Hinata, the girl with the milky white eyes that signaled the Byakugan's presence, however, looked at him intently for a few seconds. "Hello." She greeted, after her gaze softened.

Seemed she was trying to get a read on his body language, only to find herself blocked by the fact that Kakashi's entire body screamed 'lazy pervert' from every angle you looked at it, somehow. Kakashi had not spent an inordinate amount of time at ANBU uselessly. Infiltration missions are a dime a dozen there, so Kakashi had learned to project his image well enough to fool even the Hyuuga clan, Konoha's experts on reading body language.

"I suppose you have something to say?" Kurenai asked.

It seemed she was actually far more willing to believe he might have something important to say. Kurenai, much as she denied it, always tried to think the best of people and whereas Asuma had assumed Kakashi wanted to get away from his students for a while, Kurenai seemed to be willing to at least give him a chance. So he explained his idea to her.

"Well, what do you think?"

"It does sound interesting." Kurenai admitted. "But I don't think my kids are ready for a real fight, yet."

"What do you mean, sensei? I'll totally kick Uchiha's ass!" Kiba boasted, standing up to his full height. "We've trained really hard for an entire month, that's got to count for something!"

Kurenai did not know anything about his team, so Kakashi assumed she actually thought Kiba's words had weight to them. She also did not truly know what she was getting into.

"Kiba-kun is right, sensei… I want to test my strength, too!" The Hyuuga said. Kakashi hummed in thought at the display. The Hyuuga seemed quite an interesting case. Despite her words, Kakashi could pretty much see the doubt in her eyes, when it came down to it.

The Aburame, however, did not seem as confident in the team's chances as his teammates and sensei were. Smart guy, that one.

"Okay, fine." Kurenai said. "If we win, you'll help Kiba with training Akamaru and Hinata and Shino with their Ninjutsu. I assume you already told Asuma?"

"Yep. Found him first." Kakashi admitted, turning around. "That sounds good. If my team wins, you'll teach Sakura all you know about Genjutsu."

When he departed, Kakashi allowed himself a smile.

All was going according to the plan.

* * *

Someone finally caught the reference to Eroninja I placed! TrixBella, if I could, I'd offer you a request, but I don't know if I'd be able to grant it. Just for the sake of curiosity, if I did give you a free request, what would it be?

To explain: Icha Icha Tactics, which Kakashi and Naruto were reading, a spin off series from the main Icha Icha books, is basically Eroninja with the obvious differences that would popup because Jiraiya can't see the future. Blitz Tactics, Naruto's favorite book in the series, goes from Why Me to Recovering Lost Mojo, for those wondering. And yes, Naruto has read Icha Icha despite being ten. It's surprisingly tame, except for the spinoffs. It'll make sense at some point. Maybe. Let's just say that there are two versions floating around, a version with the porn and a version without the porn, it's easier than finding a way to explain that in story (actually, it's not, I know exactly how to explain that in-story. At one point, I will.)

I know a lot of people are wondering just how the hell Naruto ended up turning the way he is now, and if you truly want to know, you'll have to keep reading. This is the kind of thing I live for, keeping people guessing and trying to figure it out on their own. If I just told you guys, it wouldn't be fun. Kakashi did drop a huge hint in this chapter, if you can catch it.

As for friendship fics lacking plot, that is not what I meant, what I meant is that usually the plot revolves entirely around the friendship in most cases, I might have worded myself rather poorly in this regard. I might be making an unfair generalization, as well, and if so, I apologize for it. I tend to do that a lot, which can be really problematic at times, let me tell ya.

And hey, look at this: I have so very few things to answer to that I don't have a way of artificially inflate the word count! Woe is me, oh woe is me! I will have to write more of the actual story to make it seem like I'm releasing 6k word chapters all the time! Ah, but I kid, I kid. Who cares about the word count? I have a story that consists of 333 words, and that's more than enough for it, I say.

Also, question for the reviewers, because I'm bored and curious... Favorite pairing?


	7. Ultimate Defeat?

Thank y'all for the reviews and...

As usual, chaps, review answers and explanations are at the bottom, though this time around I had to actually edit this chapter after it was posted to reply to the reviews... Sorry 'bout that, folks!

* * *

"Interesting fact." Kakashi said, rubbing his chin. "Apparently my prior methods were working better than I expected."

An exercise like this generally takes a few days to complete, usually even more.

Then again, his team had the village's jinchuuriki, the heir to the military police and a girl who, just by happenstance, ended up with perfect Chakra control. It was pretty much obvious that he had the best selection of the year. He found the tree where he'd left his genin earlier in a matter of minutes once he was freed from his other tasks, but there were no genin…

… Until a red and pink blur passed by him, followed by a blue and white one. They both raced up the tree, but shortly after the climb began, they both came back down, this time slow enough to discern the genin that had formed the blur.

"Ninja tag?" Kakashi asked.

"Ninja tag." Sakura confirmed, panting as she sat down, next to Sasuke, who was busy catching his breath.

"Where's Na-" Kakashi cut himself off mid-sentence. "Never mind." The silver haired man said, causing Sasuke to blink and look up to see Naruto calmly walking down a tree, a book in his hands. "To tell you guys the truth, I didn't think you'd be done this ridiculously fast. It takes most people several days to complete it."

Sasuke snorted. "We're not most people." He said, smirking at the jounin who offered them an eye smile.

"He figured out he could use the Sharingan to copy what I did." Sakura said, conversationally, causing Sasuke to give her a look that said 'Et tu, Sakura!?', except he wouldn't have known what that reference meant anyway. Ancient warlords of ages long gone were not the Uchiha's cup of tea.

"Anyway… we'll move on to more complicated variations of this until I'm certain you can play a game of ANBU tag and do well enough to beat a standard chunin." Kakashi said, rubbing his chin. "Also, for reasons I'd rather not say, I'm banned from the closest four hospitals. So we'll have to practice in low altitude or you will have to limp your way to the hospital on your own."

Sakura pouted. Sasuke sighed. "Well, it's something, at least…"

Naruto raised his head from his book, looked at Kakashi for an instant, and then returned to his book.

Kakashi smirked. "Oh, yes, it's something alright…"

* * *

The next day, they met in training ground 3, the training ground where the memorial stone was located.

For a very specific reason, in fact.

Today was the day in which Kakashi thought he'd prove his superiority as a jounin sensei, further enraging everyone and annoying the everloving crap out of everyone who derided him for being a lazy excuse for a teacher!

Even though he had actually done very little to create the ridiculous team he'd been gifted with. Details, details, nothing too important, at all. This meant that Kakashi was happy and had even decided to tell his team before the other two showed up. Them training right now would not be conductive to defeating the other teams.

He was not aware of how good the other teams were, or how bad, as the case might be, but it was wise to plan for the worst, and in this case, he was intending to up the ante in a way that would make having his team in tip top shape a must. Yes, he could not afford to lose like this, and therefore, he'd make damn sure his team knew that fact.

He already had enough trouble coming up with ways to train one set of ridiculously quick learning kids, there was no way he would take on a second set of kids, even if it wasn't as prodigious as his own.

Thinking on that, he finally figured out why the Hokage had given him this particular team. All three of its members held more potential than what met even a trained eye. And his teaching method, let them work things out themselves, was actually working. Most any other team would've been crushed by the B rank mission they completed in the first week, considering that all that they walked in with was what they had taught each other.

"Okay, boys and Sakura, today, we've got a particular mission!" The silver haired jounin began. "Today, we're going to have a joint training exercise with the other two rookie teams!"

"A joint training exercise?" Sakura asked, prompting Kakashi to smirk under his mask. Somehow, she could tell from the movement of his eye, which made her wonder just how used they'd gotten to Kakashi's antics.

"Yep!" Kakashi said, nodding to them. "You see, Konoha prides itself in its teamwork, and so far it's managed to make us the greatest of the five villages. To promote teamwork amongst the Shinobi corps in their entirety instead of just the teams themselves, we do these things every once in a while."

"Or… you just thought it up yesterday because I've never heard of something like this." Sasuke said, deadpan.

Kakashi eye smiled. "There's always some form of this, whether it be joint missions or training, most people don't even mention it since they never go well." Kakashi said, shrugging. "Anyway, since doing just that would be boring, I decided that we could do something more interesting."

"By which you mean you were bored and thought of some way to torture us." Sakura summarized.

"Pretty much, yes. I knew you were the smart one, Sakura." Kakashi said, patting her head, which made her facepalm and emit a long suffering sigh. Oh, how he loved annoying the everloving crap out of his genin. "Anyway, as I was saying, instead of a simple mission or exercise, you're going to have a tournament to see who's the strongest graduating genin team!"

Sasuke and Sakura blinked. "Really?" Said Sasuke, raising one eyebrow, looking positively amused by the idea. "I suppose there's a catch in there somewhere."

Kakashi shook his head. "Nope." He said, eye smiling at them. "It wounds me to know that you think so little of me, Sasuke!" said the jounin, feigning heartache and grabbing a fistful of his jacket where his heart would be. "Right here!"

"No, it doesn't!" the Uchiha snapped.

"You're probably enjoying it!" Sakura added.

Kakashi chuckled. "I am." He said. "Anyway, all you guys have to do is beat up your classmates. Namely, what you were doing back at the academy."

Sakura blushed in embarrassment. "Ah… I was… usually in the receiving end…" She admitted, a sheepish smile on her face.

"Sakura, I doubt anyone else has Naruto and Sasuke helping them with their Taijutsu. Besides, so long as you don't get right in front of the ones who are Taijutsu experts, you'll be fine." Kakashi said, waving her concerns away. "Besides, I'm sure you'll work much better as a team than what anyone else would manage and that would carry you through even if you were weaker than your classmates."

The pinkette nodded and sighed. "So, when is it?"

"In just about an hour from now. For the following hour, we will be going over strategies to take out each and every one of your classmates without lethal or crippling blows." Kakashi said. "I've got experience fighting just about every clan in Konoha and, lucky for us, they all belong to the major clans which I have plenty of experience with, so I'll watch as you guys stumble around and laugh quietly in the back at your unworkable plans!"

Sakura groaned. "Don't you want us to win?"

"Of course I want my cute little genin students to win." Kakashi said. "This is as much a training exercise as anything else and if I do it for you it would have no point. Also, for obvious reasons, Naruto is not going to help either."

"What obvious reasons?" Sasuke asked, frowning. What reason would Naruto have not to help them in this? Well, it could be related to THAT and if it was, then it certainly could be that Naruto had knowledge of the clans' abilities and how to counter them already, just in case.

Kakashi could tell that Sasuke was connecting the dots and smiled under his mask, pulling a pair of books with orange covers. "The new Icha Icha came out and I need someone to go buy it." The silver haired man stated, eye-smiling at the two Shinobi who sighed in frustration. "There's no way I'm standing in line for something like that, and Naruto will also pick up his own volume while at it."

Sakura was actually annoyed because while she possessed the general knowledge about the clans and their abilities that they could use, it was a fact that Naruto could put it into practice and his absence would most likely be severely detrimental to any plans they could make up, as Naruto would not know them.

Deciding that there wasn't much they could do about that, the genin decided their time was better spent figuring out ways to defeat every single technique their classmates could pull out. Luckily for either of them, they weren't that skilled, yet, or else they'd have to figure out to defeat the clans' prized techniques.

That was a political shitstorm inbound, Sasuke informed.

"I'll give you guys a hand. You will have to plan around Naruto, but that doesn't mean you can't count him for your plans. He'll probably get back here too late to join in on your planning session, trust me that line is tremendously long, so he won't be in on your plan." The jounin advised, peering from over his copy of the previous Icha Icha book from the one that Naruto had gone off to buy. "Remember."

Sakura frowned and turned to Sasuke. "Any ideas?"

Sasuke rubbed his chin, humming in thought as he did. "We wouldn't be able to convey a complex plan, but… He doesn't need that to work…" Sasuke said, his face scrunching up as he put his brainpower to the test. "Simple short commands on what we want him to do should suffice, thought they'd need to be clear and in the heat of battle it'd be complicated to relay them…"

Kakashi eye smiled. "That's a squad leader's duty, Sasuke." He said with a hidden smile beneath his mask, certain that Sasuke now understood the purpose of this exercise. Certainly, it would help him if he truly wanted to lead the squad when Kakashi did not feel like taking direct command. "One of the most common problems a commander faces is relaying his orders while in battle, to troops that don't know the real plan in detail and whom probably are not paying as much attention as they should. You don't have the latter here, as Naruto will pay plenty of attention to you."

Sakura pouted again. "So you're just making this pointlessly hard on us." She said, clear frustration seeping into her tone.

"That's not it." Sasuke said, shaking his head. "Sensei… do you really have this much faith in our abilities?" The Uchiha asked. Kakashi could tell in an instant why Sasuke would think someone putting so much faith in them weird. After all, he was 'the spare' who had only been accepted as heir because Itachi couldn't be.

Even if Fugaku denied any such thing, there was no doubt in Kakashi's mind that Sasuke still had a lingering inferiority complex regarding his brother. But then again, every ninja of Itachi's generation had felt the ripples that formed from Itachi's passing.

And to think, Sasuke held even more potential, yet untapped…

Maybe, just maybe, Kakashi was beginning to find out just long it would take until Sasuke found out something he wasn't supposed to. To be quite frank, Kakashi couldn't wait, because from his assessment…

It'd be quite soon, indeed.

* * *

Kurenai and Asuma eyed Kakashi warily, looking at the man who was even at this point, more interested in his little book than in anything else. The thing that had Kurenai scrunching her face in distaste, however, was the sight of the entire team sitting on a long log (that she didn't know hadn't been there that morning), all with…

… their heads stuck into small, pocket-sized books with orange covers.

"Kakashi… I knew of your habits, but to corrupt the mind of your genin to this extent…"

"You say something?" Asked a feminine voice, as the pinkette lifted one jade-colored eye from her book and stared questioningly at the red eyed jounin for a moment before going back to the book.

"They're my pride and joy, these kids." Kakashi said, wiping a fake tear from his eye.

Asuma actually laughed out loud at that. "Okay, then, we're here like we promised. It's noon and I want to get this over with so I can start going over our schedule, Kakashi." The bearded jounin said, walking next to the jounin seated in the log. He saw the three genin making a calculated move, standing up from the log, the Uchiha glancing at him briefly.

The Sarutobi Heir, however, narrowed his eyes. The kids were far too synchronized to be what he expected of a team trained by a man who couldn't even bother to show up on time for anything. He took a long drag of the cigarette hanging from his lower lip and directed a glance to the approaching forms of Shikamaru, Chouji and the one who was dragging them along, Ino.

"Why do we have to do this, again?" Shikamaru asked, sounding as bored as he looked.

"Because if you don't, I will report you to your mother." Asuma countered blandly.

"If you guys are gonna be like that this'll be easy as pie!" Kiba said, grinning as he looked around the assembled genin and jounin. "I can't wait to wipe that smug smirk off your face, Uchiha!" Kiba called, pointing a clawed finger at the Uchiha who was, indeed, smirking smugly.

"Kiba, focus on winning, then you can talk trash all you want." Kurenai said, her tone one of long suffering.

Kurenai's team, along with their sensei, took a few seconds longer to approach the circle that had formed around the still seated Copy Nin. A brief glance from Kakashi confirmed that everyone was, indeed, there.

"So… now that we're all here, I've decided to make this a tad more interesting." Kakashi said, offering an eye smile that would have disarmed even the most uptight of guards, but given the chills to any and all Shinobi within range. "How about a double or nothing?" Kakashi asked.

Asuma raised an eyebrow, as did Kurenai.

"What do you mean?" Asked the bearded jounin, speaking before Kurenai could.

"Simple. Team 7 VS Team 8 and Team 10." Kakashi explained. "My team is made up of the three best students in the graduating class and believe me, they've trained hard this past month, continuing their training even during the C rank mission they took on their first week."

This made both Kurenai and Asuma gasp in surprise, and most of the teams to look confused. "But I thought genin teams are only supposed to do D ranks! You said that, sensei!" Ino quickly gave voice to the genin's protests, taking the words off Kiba's mouth.

"No, Genin are supposed to do lower C ranks as well." Sakura explained. "However, this is left for more experienced genin teams preparing for the chunin exams." The pink haired girl continued, receiving a nod of approval from her sensei as she did.

"This is totally unfair!" Kiba yelled. "Three best students?! Naruto was the deadlast!"

"Only because he scored consistent zeros in anything that was not directly related to being a Shinobi." Shino interjected. "I do believe he had top marks in Taijutsu and was second only to Sasuke on Ninjutsu."

At this, the Uchiha smirked. "I don't recall a single instance of you ever laying a hand on him, Inuzuka." The amused black haired boy spoke, shoving his hands (and his little orange book) in his pocket.

"This is ridiculous, Kakashi." Said Kurenai. "There's no way that your team, no matter how good, could beat two teams at once." She said, sounding curious as to what the jounin could say to ascertain his point. There was the point that Konoha prided itself on teamwork, which meant that… Kakashi had probably planned to pull this off from the start.

Teamwork training had never been what he intended for his team. No, he wanted to train his team on taking out large numbers of opponents, while he'd also, as a side effect, provide a wider teamwork exercise for the other two teams.

"Maa, mine can." Kakashi said, smiling widely under his mask, knowing full well that Kurenai had realized the point of his exam. Asuma had, as well, if the man's pensive state was anything to go by.

"Fine by me." Asuma said, letting out a puff of smoke. "You guys better not hold back." Asuma muttered, plopping down next to Kakashi, whose eye returned to the little orange book.

Kurenai sat next to Asuma and there was a frown of disgust in her face. "Aren't you even going to pay attention to how your team does?" She asked. She was less impressed with Kakashi at every moment. While there were occasional flashes of brilliancy from the man, they were few and far between and frankly, it was getting quite tedious to have to stand him reading that book all the time.

Kakashi eye smiled at her, then, with a snap, slammed his book's sides together. "Kurenai, I do believe you need something to help you unwind." Kakashi said, rubbing his chin.

It seemed that his blond student knew exactly what he meant, because seconds after, he had approached Kurenai and was holding the same small, orange book he'd been reading in his hand, clearly offering it to the red eyed jounin who looked at the boy with a hint of distrust and apprehension.

Sasuke sighed. "Naruto… I don't think she'll like it." The Uchiha said, from a few meters behind the blond.

Naruto looked at him for a second, and Sasuke could've sworn he frowned for an instant. Then he actually pushed it into Kurenai's hands, a tad more insistently than before.

"Just… give it a chance, okay?" The pink haired girl next to the Uchiha said. "I thought it was just tasteless smut, but it's not, really! Turns out, not everything by Jiraiya-sama has porn in it!"

"Sakura… you've read that filth!?" Ino called out in horror. "Wait until Ami hears of this…"

The pinkette merely offered a smirk. "Sasuke-kun reads it too~" She said in a sickeningly sweet tone.

That shut Ino up immediately, because as a matter of fact, she'd seen Sasuke reading it. This did not add up in her worldview. Sasuke was perfect. Ergo, his taste in books was also perfect. Which meant that if he liked it, it had to be good, right? Ino's brain worked on very wonky logic, which was both a blessing and a boon at times, while at others it was the main cause of many headaches, both her parents' and her teachers'. Mostly the latter and very, very rarely the former, since you could get her to focus on pretty much anything by using the Uchiha as bait.

It was a pity most people were too dumb to realize how easy it really is to manipulate a fangirl, but Sakura knew very well what she had to do to manipulate Ino, for they were the same ways in which she herself could've been manipulated, not too long ago.

There was hope for Ino yet…

"So…" Shikamaru said. "We're doing this?" He asked, raising one eyebrow and stifling a yawn as he spoke. "Can I surrender now?"

"What!? You're gonna surrender? Well, it's unfair like it is now…" Kiba said, his dog poking out of his jacket and barking in agreement. "Even Akamaru thinks so."

"We'll see…" Kakashi cryptically stated, offering them a shit eating grin under his mask. "Anyway… you can begin whenever you like." He said, flipping a page in the book. "Asuma, give the command." He said to Asuma, upon finding the man seemingly thoughtful again.

Asuma shook his head. "Kurenai, give the command." He said, looking specifically at Shikamaru.

Kurenai rolled her eyes. Their stalling had managed to make team 7 actually take a few steps away to remove the advantage that the two joined teams had obtained by surrounding Team 7 from the beginning. Kakashi, despite his clear lack of interest, did seem to actually care how his team was doing, given the glances she saw him stealing at the genin every time he flipped a page.

Once she felt she'd stalled enough for there to be a safe distance between the teams, Kurenai sighed. "Begin!" she yelled, doubt settling in the pit of her stomach as she saw Kiba recklessly charge ahead along with Akamaru, into the formed Team 7, followed by a hasty Hinata, who hurried to make up for Kiba's rashness with her defensive style.

A decent combination, if this fight were a friendly spar limited to Taijutsu.

Shino and Shikamaru hung back, while Ino and Chouji were left wondering whether to support the other two or not.

Ultimately, they'd chosen to rush behind Kiba and Hinata, just as Kiba and Akamaru reached their target and singled out Sasuke to begin their bout. Contrary to what Kurenai expected, Team 7 didn't even move when that happened…

… and she instantly figured out why when Kiba went right past Sasuke like he wasn't even there.

She bit her lip. Her own team, fooled by her specialty. The basic bunshin, one of the weakest forms of genjutsu there are, most don't even consider it genjutsu even despite its nature as an illusion, complimented by a ridiculously easy to break and easily noticeable D rank genjutsu that would've broken the moment the genin stopped paying attention to the bunshin.

"Sakura, you know what to do! Naruto, take Hinata out of the game, don't let her touch you!" Sasuke barked the orders quickly and jumped from where Sakura's genjutsu had concealed him, quickly dashing for the Kunoichi and Shinobi dashing behind Hinata herself.

"Dammit!" Kiba yelled, as he landed on the ground after leaping to deliver a cross to Sasuke's face that would no doubt have been devastating. His ear twitched and he narrowly avoided a pinkish blur that he'd later learn was Sakura's leg. Had she been more fit, he would've been unable to dodge.

Kiba growled and tried to swipe at Sakura, aiming to scratch her face… only to feel her left forearm block his wild swipe. She hadn't been fast enough to hit him, but she'd been fast enough to complete the roundhouse kick and even block. Maybe she might even have been interesting to fight.

However, her counter was predictable, a simple straight punch that Kiba found himself trying to block…

… Only to see it punch right through his flimsy, one armed guard. He'd expected it strong enough to hold back Sakura's attack and, had this been a month ago, he wouldn't have even felt the attack. As it was, he was left dizzied while Akamaru quickly went to make up for his deficiency.

Yet Sakura was unrelenting. She did not have the strength or speed to fight Kiba on equal grounds and Akamaru's wild instincts and small size made him a tough opponent to face. However, she was vastly more skilled than Kiba was, as the Inuzuka, like all of his clan, relied mostly on instincts. The difference was, he hadn't yet developed them to the point where they could supplant real skill.

And proper movements can make an entire world of difference when speaking about the strength behind an attack, that much Sakura had proven.

Kiba, however, was faring better than his teammate. He was fighting the arguably weakest member of the team in a straight up fight. Meanwhile, the one who'd followed him first to cover him, Hinata…

… Was facing Uzumaki Naruto.

Unlike her peers, Kurenai was observing that bout more than she was the other two.

Most males, even genin, have an aversion to the idea of striking females. It's an idea ingrained in their heads since infancy. It's just something you don't do unless you absolutely have to. It was an instinct that many, many Kunoichi took advantage of and that Shinobi outgrew with time. This was more prevalent in civilian born Shinobi, but some clan Shinobi had this view as well, although that only came from the more traditionalist clans, not even the Hyuuga were that retrograde.

It was to be expected for a genin to be incapable of attacking one of his female comrades, even in a spar.

Uzumaki Naruto appeared to have no objections, however, to handling his Kunoichi comrades in a rather rough fashion. Proven when he'd engaged Hyuuga Hinata in combat. The girl had set herself in a ready stance, Byakugan flashing, and had been ready to punch right through the blond to aid her teammate. It made Kurenai proud to see the normally shy girl so eager to defend her teammate.

She had thrown three open palmed jabs, the first two of which Uzumaki dodged, first by tilting his body slightly to the left and out of the way of her right palm, then to the right to avoid the left palm and then back to the left, except this time his left hand shot like an elemental bullet and grabbed Hinata's wrist before she could retract it.

In a move that was very reminiscent of the Jyuuken in the way that Naruto placed his legs, he buried his right elbow in just the right spot in Hinata's ribs, causing her to gasp out her pain at the sudden attack. She had been pulled into the attack, which had added to the force of the blow.

The Uzumaki then pulled further on her arm, extending his right leg a bit more so that it swept her feet from under her and once she was airborne, spun her around once so he could toss her away, back the way she came.

Sakura smirked. "Let's tag, Naruto!" She yelled, seeing as Kiba was recovering from the few weakening blows she'd dealt him. She would not be able to keep him down for long, she was not strong enough.

Yet.

The blond nodded and Sakura ran past him, leaving behind both Akamaru and Kiba, whom was busy wiping a stray trail of red from the lip that Sakura had split with her first punch. "Dammit… I just got my ass kicked by a girl…" Kiba muttered. "No matter. I saw what you did to Hinata you asshole."

There was no going around it, the Inuzuka was incredibly pissed.

Kurenai was certain that even Kakashi would have noticed the crush he harbored on the Hyuuga, though she guessed that at this point it could only be a good thing since it'd get him to focus and go all out, unlike how he'd heavily underestimated Sakura and paid for it.

Asuma scoffed. "Sakura might have some new tricks, but so does Ino." He said, staring at where the blonde had engaged Sakura.

"Sakura knows a trick that can beat all others, though." Kakashi said, conversationally. "You'll see…"

Sasuke… was not having a good time fighting Chouji. While slow as molasses, Chouji was no doubt far stronger, physically, than Sasuke was and could have ended the fight if he'd landed one of the attacks he'd launched with his huge hands. Not to mention, Ino, while not particularly helping Chouji, was still hindering him, getting in his way. So he'd been in a bit of trouble, forced to constantly dodge Chouji's attacks since Ino kept annoying him when he tried to attack the chubby nin.

Damaging him was hard, as well, his bulk prevented Sasuke's unarmed attacks from dealing real damage and Sasuke was reluctant to rely on his admittedly limited arsenal of jutsu and lethal weaponry. While he could've killed Chouji several times over already, that would've defeated the point of being comrades.

Asuma was aware of how frustrated the dancing game had kept the two members of Team 8. Ino was unwilling to actively harm Sasuke, though she would not have been capable of doing it, and while Chouji was, for once, putting in some effort, it was clear he would never be able to touch the Uchiha with his current level of speed. Sasuke hadn't even broken a sweat from jumping from spot to spot, dodging the giant-sized lumps of flesh that Chouji swung around like a madman.

"Tche. You're taking forever, Sakura." Sasuke muttered, taking out a particular set of kunai he was fond of. With a perfectly fluid movement, he tossed the Kunai at Chouji, both of them curving around the fat boy in such a way that when he brought up his giant arms to cover himself, the wire that the Kunai had been tied to trapped them against the Akimichi's chest. "This may sting a bit." Sasuke informed.

He did not know what the Raiton jutsu required to actually imbue the ninja wire with lightning was. It was a variant of the normal one used to flow chakra through any item, that much he knew, he just didn't know how to do it with Raiton.

Now, using an exercise that produces sparks of lightning by vibrating his own chakra? That much he can do, since it's basic training for his first affinity. Add that to the metallic wire, and you've got something that pretty much makes the need for a specific jutsu moot.

Ino frowned, seeing how Chouji felt the discharge of Sasuke's Raiton chakra, before going to intercept the Uchiha and end whatever jutsu he was using. As in many of her affairs involving the Uchiha, she got blocked by her pinkette ex-best friend. "Ino."

"Sakura."

With a smirk, Ino decided to start going through handseals, since the pinkette didn't know what sort of jutsu she would use and most likely wouldn't be smart enough to try to stop her. Sakura had always been slow on the uptake when it came to actual fighting. She'd probably brace herself for whatever attack would come with the hope to block it.

What Ino had gleamed from her brief bout with Kiba was that Sakura fought much like the other two in close range, a reactionary fighting style that didn't lend itself well to a ninjutsu fight.

Sakura, however, jumped forward and delivered a punishing blow to Ino's jaw that sent her tumbling to the floor in shock, completely and utterly, because she hadn't expected Sakura to actually be smart. Hadn't she basically gotten her high grades entirely on her astounding memory?

Sakura smirked. "I'm not the same Sakura I was in the academy, Ino!" She said, her fist meeting her palm and her knuckles cracking. "And I think I'm actually kind of finding my Kunoichi pride with this fight. Seriously… This is kind of demeaning."

Ino growled and got right back up, forgetting all about her surprise and instead trying to nail Sakura with her jutsu again, only to get similarly blocked as before.

Meanwhile, Naruto was having a far easier time with Kiba than the latter had expected. In fact, Kiba was losing rather badly despite his focus. He couldn't lay a hand on Naruto, no matter what he did. He was always a little bit faster, he was always a tad stronger and he was always just plain better.

And it pissed Kiba off to no end, which was throwing his abilities off even further. How could this jackass be so much better than him? What the hell made him so good? Why couldn't Kiba himself be that good?! He wouldn't let the guy who had beat up Hinata with so little care, who hadn't even sported an expression when he did, walk away scot free.

Yet when he tried to punch Uzumaki in the face, he felt a knee bury itself in his stomach, only seconds after noticing he'd badly overextended himself and Uzumaki had made use of his smaller frame to slip past Kiba's attack.

The blond clasped his hands together and prepared to bring them down on the back of Kiba's neck, when the dog boy heard the words of his savior.

"Kagemane No Jutsu, success." A dull, bored and tired voice called out. "Now, Hinata!"

The Hyuuga, with a bit of a limp, set herself in the familiar Jyuuken stance.

Kiba let a grin nearly split his face in half at the sight of the frozen boy about to be defeated.

Sakura gasped, feeling a strange, tingling sensation run through her entire body. She was tired. Far more tired than she should be. She'd only knocked Ino around for a minute or two at most, she had barely had to tap into her chakra reserves to do it, even, so why… why was most of her chakra gone already?

As she fell to the ground, limp, she saw the form of Aburame Shino walking away from her and she loudly cursed the Kikaichu.

"And, it's a wrap, Kakashi." Asuma said, a smile on his face.

Kurenai, meanwhile, frowned, which actually set Asuma's nerves on edge.

* * *

The posting for this schedule is as soon as they're done. The thing I said with the last chapter was because I didn't know it was finished already and it kind of sat in its folder for longer than it needed to before I noticed it was done and posted it. So... Yeah.

Naruto's situation is a tad more complicated than the simplest solution. He is not a perfectly emotionless weapon like Root creates. Take Sai as an example and put him versus Naruto. They're vastly different, and I don't mean only in the clothes department. Sai, for one, speaks out with absolutely no problems whatsoever, doesn't he? Not to mention, Naruto actually does display emotions when in the presence of Sasuke several times. So whatever happened to him, evidently, was not simply root training and conditioning.

You'll have to keep reading, it'll be a while before I state, exactly, what happened to Naruto.

However, I can tell y'all that yes, Danzo WAS involved in this. I like to think that Danzo is a smart person. He's often made cartoonishly evil and frankly moronic in several fics... He's a patriot. The interests of Konoha come first, not his own. If he's just another megalomaniac, it wouldn't be fun to write or read about him. Danzo is a far more interesting antagonist, to me, if he's intelligent, if he's willing to put Konoha first no matter what. He's not trying to become Hokage because he's a megalomaniac obsessed with power, he's trying to take over Konoha because he genuinelly believes that he can do better than the one he's trying to oust.

His relationship with Hiruzen can also be made much more interesting than simply antagonizing each other at every turn. They know each other from back when they were children, they respect each other's abilities and accomplishments and they have vastly different ideologies from each other. They've been comrades for very long and know each other better than the palm of their hands.

This is the same problem I see often happen when people employ the elder council, who are constantly and needlessly antagonistic towards Hiruzen, who seem to think that the sun shines out of Danzo's ass and who are ruthlessly mean and ridiculously abusive towards Naruto. Well, they're incredibly old and one does not reach that age by being a moron. I'd like to think that they're not dumb enough to provoke the sleeping giant fox. If they really believe Naruto to be a monster, then with even more reason they'd stay back.

There is no second Minato to seal the monster again if it breaks free. Not that they know of, anyway. So... provoking the kid holding the Kyuubi's leash? Might need a smarter course of action than that...

Most people seem to like SasuNaru best, when it comes to pairings. Somehow, this does not surprise me.

Hm... I don't believe in Seme & Uke relationships. Probably because the few gay people I actually know (you know the myth about having a gay friend being awesome? It's true. No, really.) don't do those sorts of relationships. I won't delve into an incredibly in depth explanation of it, but basically, that's just another form of an abusive relationship, the way I had it explained to me.

I'm going to extend the invitation I made to TrixBella to everyone. If I grant any of you a request, what'd it involve? Since this is all hypothetical and I'm interested in seeing your replies, there are really no rules for things I wouldn't be able to do or would not want to.

TrixBella

Sorry, no can do, :( Darkest Void's chapters reach upwards of eight or so thousand words, the first few are over ten thousand words. This one was almost six thousand words long (5,800 or so) and believe me, it's already hard enough to write chapters that are this long.


	8. Reversal, Prizes

Yay, it be done, yo!

Do I need to repeat it, folks? Thanks, as always, for caring enough about the story to leave a review and, if you have a concern with the story, it'll be answered at the bottom.

If it isn't, then just ask away, I read all reviews, always!

* * *

Shikamaru was not as dumb as he liked to make people think he was. Fact is, he was just too lazy to use his rather impressive intellect outside of the things he was actually interested in, such as Shogi or figuring out ways to put in the least effort. However, he is not so lazy as to simply lie there and wait to be killed in a fight.

He was also smart enough to understand that even if he was lazy, not training at all was a big no-no, because more likely than not that would get him killed horribly one day.

Even so, he really, really didn't want to take part in this exercise. He'd never fought Uzumaki and did not plan to, because everyone who did ended up in pain and the only one who stood a chance in hell against him in sparring practice had been the Uchiha, who even so had never managed to defeat the blond in a straight up fight.

Their teachers had a little wager going on about this, that much was easy to figure out from how they acted and what they said. So chances were that if they lost, Asuma would be insufferable. Shikamaru didn't really care, since even if he tried his hardest, he would not be capable of nagging to the level Ino or his mother could nag.

So he tried to surrender immediately. He did not want to be in the battlefield opposite Uzumaki. He was not dumb, like Kiba, who thought that one month of training would make up for the colossal difference there had been between Uzumaki and practically everyone else. Much less so considering that one of the village's Elite Jounin was the one who was actually teaching that particular genin team.

Heck, even Sakura, whom he'd believed would not be much of a problem seemed to move in synch with her teammates so naturally that Shikamaru had to assume that they'd trained together for quite a bit of time. Possibly they'd trained constantly the entire month, even despite the fact that they'd taken a C rank.

Both the Uchiha and the Uzumaki trained religiously, Shikamaru did not believe for a second that they hadn't forced or convinced Sakura to catch up or be left in the dust. Also, the fact that she hadn't looked over at Sasuke and blushed even once meant that she had also managed to shake her severe case of fangirlism away. This filled Shikamaru's heart with fleeting hope for Ino… Maybe he'd have to ask Team 7 how they managed to break Sakura's infatuation…

His surrender attempt had, predictably, been shot down. Asuma had told them not to hold back at all, which meant that even he recognized that despite the overwhelming odds, Team 7 was still an opponent to take completely seriously.

Were he to be quite honest, Shikamaru wasn't sure of their odds. Kakashi had been right. Sakura had been the best Kunoichi overall, Sasuke was the Rookie Of The Year and Uzumaki had basically been untouchable during the academy.

If their teamwork was anywhere near as good as Shikamaru expected it to be from merely watching how they moved, then they'd probably prove more than a challenge despite outnumbering them two to one.

Shikamaru suppressed a groan of annoyance when he saw two thirds of his team rush to combat them outright. Kiba knew that two of the three had been the top two for Taijutsu and Ninjutsu in the academy, did he really think that by jumping in on his own he'd do anything other than get his behind kicked?

"You have a plan." Shino said, distracting Shikamaru from where he saw the genjutsu that had covered Team 7 fade and the engagements commence. Shikamaru winced at how Kiba was getting his ass utterly handed to him by Sakura, which meant that his expectations of their general ability had been way off.

Shikamaru nodded in response to the Aburame's query. He had a plan that he could execute with just the both of them. Team 7 had taken care of the 'divide' part, and now Shikamaru had to conquer them one by one. Easier said than done.

When Hinata flew in his general direction, he saw Shino move to intercept her, and when he set her down and she stopped nursing her aching side, he decided he had to explain it right then and there. "Hinata… I will catch Uzumaki with the Kagemane no Jutsu. When I do, you will block off his Chakra. Start with his arms, if I'm correct, I'll only be able to hold the Kagemane for a few seconds at the most."

Trying to hold someone who vastly outclassed you in both brute strength and raw chakra, according to his father, was something that he had learned was an effort in futility unless your will was stronger than theirs. Shikamaru had no illusions of overpowering the will of the blond, either, so he would have to bank on the few seconds he'd be able to hold and one or two extra from the surprise of actually getting hit with the Kagemane.

Distractions would be pointless, Uzumaki would ignore him just like he ignored everything else.

With a muttered 'okay', Hinata stood on wobbly feet, a hand pressed against the spot she'd been struck in. It'd probably bruise later, Shikamaru absent mindedly noted, as he went muttered a 'So troublesome', watching Team 7 manhandle his teammates like they were first year students in the academy against jounin.

"Drain Sakura's chakra. She doesn't have much of it, so it should be quick." Shikamaru said to Shino, who merely nodded in acceptance of his task. "Then, I'll move to hold Sasuke and Chouji will knock him right out."

He realized, vaguely, that there was a very big risk in this plan. Namely, that Uzumaki would break his hold before Hinata could render him harmless. If that happened…

Well, there was no use dwelling in Ifs, he had to act. He actually rushed for the first time in his life, as it was pretty much clear that Kiba would not be able to hold the blond off for much longer. When Uzumaki clasped his hands behind Kiba's back, Shikamaru yelled his technique's success and spurred Hinata on.

He did not look back to see if Shino had managed to do his part.

All that he was concentrated on, for a full three seconds, was his hold on the Uzumaki. Four.

Hinata was ready, the chakra in her hands had gathered and she had begun to pull her arm back to land the first attack against Uzumaki's Right shoulder.

Five.

Hinata had hesitated for an instant. She hadn't focused on his coils last time, paying a closer look to the way that he moved instead. Now that he was immobilized, she could focus on his chakra coils entirely. It still surprised her, despite the fact that she'd become aware of the boy's existence sometime around two years ago, when he stopped being the dead last nobody wanted to associate with and became the unbeatable Taijutsu monster that everyone feared having to face in a spar.

She had seen him with her Byakugan many times. And even so…

His coils were thicker and his chakra more dense than anything she'd ever seen. Whereas most people's chakra tended to be so thin that even the Byakugan would see through it, the exception being people with either exceptionally large chakra reserves, she could not see through Uzumaki's chakra coils.

Shaking off the distraction, her hands began to move quickly, sealing up the Tenketsu in Uzumaki's right arm, rendering it useless as she struck it repeatedly. She knew not if he would still be capable of moving the arm if she blocked the upper Tenketsu, but given the ridiculous amount of chakra coursing through it, it was a safer bet to block them all.

Hinata was not brave enough to gamble on something like this.

"HINATA, GET AWAY!" She heard Kiba yell, as she was twisting her body to change targets without dropping her stride…

… Only to get punched right in the middle of the face by Uzumaki, an attack that sent her flying back with a broken nose. Much to her amazement, it didn't even seem as if it bothered him that he had his arm rendered useless.

Kiba had jumped up and tried to hit Uzumaki before he could strike Hinata, but not only had he been late to stop him, he'd left himself completely open as Uzumaki spun on his heel and lashed out with his leg, avoiding Kiba's punch by barely tilting his neck away.

Sakura's roundhouse kick had been incredibly fast and near perfect, movement-wise. Naruto blew her out of the water, however, as Kiba heard the whooshing sound that his leg made as it cut through the air. The blond's shorter stature meant that he had to stretch himself to a greater extent than Sakura had, Kiba's jump had also added a further strain.

So it was with no small amount of awe that Shikamaru watched as the kick, executed perfectly, sent Kiba flying in the opposite direction from where Hinata had gone.

Yet, Kiba had actually managed to do what he'd intended to do, since his hand, which had missed Uzumaki's face by inches on its way forward, carved a very noticeable, jagged gash across the blond's whiskered cheek on its way back.

Shikamaru knew he stood no chance once left alone with the blond, so he took the few seconds he'd earned and ran to assist Chouji with Sasuke.

The small shock that had knocked the chubby boy out had only lasted for a few seconds of Chouji being out of it. Being a ninja, the Akimichi sat up and watched as Sasuke and Shino squared off, taking a few instants to gather his bearings. Since his jutsu had worn off, his arms had returned back to normal and he could shrug off the wire.

Yet Chouji found himself staring at the Taijutsu display that the Aburame and the Uchiha were showing, both displaying the prowess that had made them rivals. At one point, Shino used Kawarimi to set a trap with a Kikai Bunshin, but Sasuke had seen it coming and acted accordingly. Shino had to recall his Kikaichu lest they get incinerated by the grand fireball that Sasuke conjured.

It didn't even seem to tire the Uchiha, which meant that he had considerably larger chakra reserves than what most genin would have, as elemental jutsu tended to be harder to learn for genin due to their chakra cost.

"Sakura, get up already!" The Uchiha yelled, engaging in melee with the Aburame again, though Shino was moving more warily now that he was certain that he was outclassed in the stamina department.

Just as Shino leaped back, Sasuke prepared to follow but found himself unable to.

"Kagemane No Jutsu, success." Shikamaru called. "Chouji, end it now!"

The Akimichi nodded, engaging in his most powerful jutsu, the human meat bullet. He grew in size until he was a huge ball and, propelled with his chakra, began to rush forward. This was not as advanced a technique in the Akimichi skill tree as many thought it to be. In fact, it was a precursor to the partial multi-size technique since it required far less delicate control and more raw chakra and mass.

He was a ways away from where Sasuke had been frozen, but he was going fast.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw the rolling human boulder.

"What the- Oof!" Shikamaru had apparently tried to say something, but got cut off as a slender, feminine hand buried in his gut. "Sorry I'm late, but I was enjoying my nap." The pinkette said, grinning at the Uchiha who took the chance to leap away from the incoming Chouji-ball.

Chouji, deciding he might as well try again, steered himself to perform an U-turn and rushed at Sasuke again…

Until his path was blocked. A pair of tiny hands slammed on the rolling boulder and for the first time, Chouji found resistance from this jutsu from someone other than his clan, who boasted ridiculous physical strength. Heck, he'd been ground to a halt and had only managed to push whoever had stopped him back a few feet.

Even Chouji could tell that the only one in the 'battle' with enough physical strength to pull said feat off was Uzumaki.

"Wasn't the chakra in his right arm blocked?" Asked Shikamaru, holding his stomach and looking with wide eyes at how the Uzumaki kept Chouji from advancing. "He shouldn't be capable of moving that arm!"

Shikamaru didn't know that Kurenai had mirrored the question to the silver haired jounin sitting on the same log as her. "How is he moving that arm?" She asked, raising one eyebrow at Kakashi.

"That's a secret." The silver haired jounin replied.

"Bunshin." Shino suddenly cut. "That's a bunshin!" he warned, and everyone then looked at the second Naruto whose arm was hanging limply by his side.

Sasuke smiled. "I told him to make a few and hide them around the training ground in case something like this happened." The Uchiha's smugness was pretty much warranted. "We had an hour to plan how to beat you all, you think we wouldn't take precautions against the Jyuuken?"

"We can't beat you three on three." Shikamaru said, sighing. "I yield." The Nara said, once he'd realized that he, Shino and Chouji were pretty much screwed at that point.

"Dammit!" Asuma yelled from the sidelines.

Shikamaru groaned. "Troublesome… so you probably had plans on how to beat all of us, then?"

"Pretty much, yes." Sasuke admitted. "Sakura had the intelligence and I had the tactics."

"Kiba would underestimate me." Sakura began, smiling as she stood with her arms folded over her nonexistent chest. "I only needed to distract him long enough until Naruto finished with Hinata, but I could have beaten him if we'd fought for longer. Ino needs someone to immobilize her opponents before she can take them out, so all I had to do was keep attacking."

Shino adjusted his sunglasses. "How did you get back up after being drained by my Kikaichu? They should have taken most of your chakra away." He said in a flat tone that was nonetheless laced with curiosity.

"Oh, that's easy. I have small chakra reserves so I get tired really easily." Sakura said, shrugging. "I'm used to running on fumes, training with those two, so… it doesn't really bother me as much as most people, and even without using chakra to enhance my muscles I'm still in better physical state than Shikamaru is so I really had no doubts about taking him out."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "If you hadn't toyed around with Ino, you could've taken out Shikamaru and we would have won without skirting defeat." He said, glaring at the pinkette.

"We were prepared for that, anyway." Sakura said, shrugging.

Chouji had returned to his normal size and sat on the ground, a bit dizzied, after a simple punch to his giant ball form that had shown him just why exactly Uzumaki had been capable of stopping him at all.

"Was getting caught part of your plans?" Shikamaru asked, looking not unlike someone who had just been told something very shocking, like Hitler having Jews under his employ during WW2 or along these lines.

"Actually, no." Sakura admitted, with a sheepish smile and tone. "I kind of got distracted with Ino when I should've just knocked her out and dealt with you as soon as possible."

"We came pretty close to losing because of that." Sasuke said, his voice deadpan as he did.

"Hey! I had to work out my frustrations." Sakura said with a huff. "Besides, I'm trying to pound sense into Ino, it's kind of my duty as her best friend." She said, gesturing with her hands at the unconscious blonde.

Sasuke sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"That was a rather ingenious stratagem." Shino stated, looking at Shikamaru, who was still in the ground. Shikamaru groaned and mumbled a 'thank you'. "I must train more intensely to make up for my deficiencies, if this is the level that is to be expected from a proper genin." The Aburame said, turning to Sakura, who blushed at the indirect praise.

The pinkette, however, wobbled on her feet for a second, making everyone remember the fact that she was dangerously close to Chakra Exhaustion, only to be caught by Naruto as she began to fall to the ground. Well, the Naruto bunshin, anyway.

"What is that clone? It's solid and it seems to be autonomous…"

"It is." Sasuke confirmed. "That's a Kage Bunshin. You guys did enough to beat one of those."

"Sounds important." Chouji said, shaking his head to eliminate the last spells of dizziness from it.

"It is. It's a B Rank jutsu." Sakura said, shrugging. "I don't know the details, though." She explained, sitting down next to Shikamaru as the clone gently laid her down. "Anyway… I'll… take a nap now…"

* * *

"There's nothing to it. My team kicked ass, plain and simple." Kakashi said, leaning against the bar and propping his elbows in it. "We made a bet and you two have to pay up. Don't worry, I'll be nice." Kakashi said, smirking. "I'll help your students with their Taijutsu, Kurenai, and I know how to kick your kids into high gear, Asuma… though it will cost you."

Asuma raised one eyebrow. "It will cost me what?"

"You'll have to teach Naruto wind Ninjutsu on top of teaching him how to use his affinity."

"I thought those went hand in hand." Asuma said, raising one eyebrow.

"Hien (Flying Swallow)." Said Kakashi, eye-smiling at him. "I don't know what kind of weapon would fit Naruto best, but he needs one and I'm thinking of getting all of my team to try out for weapons when I get the chance."

The Hien was something that went beyond simply channeling wind chakra through your weapon. That would make your weapon sharper, yes, but that's it. The Hien turned Asuma's trench knives from extremely dangerous weapons in melee range into a meat. It was designed for knives so that meant that Kakashi had an idea of what'd fit Naruto best. "I'll… think about it."

Kakashi shrugged. "And as for you, Kurenai…"

"If it involves something perverted, so help me, I will force you to make out with Gai." The kunoichi jounin grumbled, causing both Asuma and Kakashi to cringe.

Kakashi shook his head. "I'll need you to help me with Sasuke too." He said, rubbing his chin. "Even with the Sharingan doing the heavy lifting, having an idea of how Genjutsu works is very important. It's what separates an Uchiha Genjutsu from a master's Genjutsu." He explained.

Kurenai, of course, knew this. Ocular genjutsu were actually rather easy to break and avoid, as most relied on eye-to-eye contact and if one got away from the user's line of vision they'd break instantly and the variety in them was rather limited, which meant recognizing them was easier. While every Uchiha had the ability to use mid level genjutsu as a result of their sharingan, only Itachi was really capable of using master-level genjutsu on par with Kurenai.

Meaning, Genjutsu good enough to fool even the Sharingan and Byakugan.

"I'll agree, I guess."

"Tell you what, I'll also help you with Kiba and Akamaru. I know a thing or two about Ninken that I'm sure would surprise Kiba." The silver haired jounin said, an eye smile on his face.

Asuma sighed. "Kakashi… how the hell did you train these kids? I've never seen teamwork that good on a rookie team, even Inoichi, Shikaku and Chouza had a rocky start." The Sarutobi heir spoke, the stool that he'd been sitting in creaking as he leaned over to look past Kurenai, who'd ended up in the middle this time.

"I… had absolutely nothing to do with it! In fact, I only really began training them yesterday!"

Kurenai and Asuma felt their jaws hitting the floor, but they were busier contemplating the sentence that Kakashi had oh so cheerfully dropped. It was a bomb that left them feeling kind of cheated.

"I told you, I got the best three students from the academy and I wasn't kidding. Sasuke and Naruto have been friends for a long time and Sakura was extremely receptive to the verbal beatdown that Sasuke gave her to break her out of her Fangirlism. She's still got a lot to make up for, but her own innate talent more than makes up for it." The Elite Jounin stated, sounding as cheerful as he looked. "They passed the bell test before they even took it."

"Okay… You weren't kidding, then." Kurenai said. "I thought you'd only meant their grades but… they're that good by training on their own…"

Kakashi sighed. "They train very hard." He said, looking at the glass he held in his hands with apprehension. "I kind of feel like a dick for waiting for an entire month before actually teaching them anything. They learned tree walking in a couple of hours and they've already got the gist of water walking. I'll have to test Sakura's affinity and move on to Ninjutsu pretty soon, since they don't need my help for their Taijutsu… Maybe I should ask Gai for help on that end…"

It was really odd how, at times, Kakashi would Shunshin away the moment he was made aware that Gai was in the vicinity and how sometimes the Jounin would actually go looking. One would even think that they were friends rather than 'just' Eternal Rivals. Kakashi didn't seem to give much thought to their rivalry whatsoever, often coming up with ridiculously simple challenges he could beat Gai easily in whereupon the other would rant about Youth and leave Kakashi alone for a few hours while he beat his self imposed punishment training.

It left most people deeply confused as to what their relationship really was.

"You… probably shouldn't introduce your students to Gai yet." Asuma said. "It's tradition to scare them with him after their first year as Genin." He admitted.

"I don't think they'll spend a full year as genin." Kakashi said, smirking.

"They're good…" Kurenai said. "But being a good fighter isn't all that you need to get through the Chunin exams."

"That may be true." Kakashi said, granting her the point. "But I'd still bet on them. Heck, I'd put them in the chunin exams right now if I could. I don't know if they'd get promoted as they are now, but they'd survive and gain valuable experience and that's something I can't teach them." The copy nin said, shrugging.

Kurenai frowned, but said nothing.

"Anyway… I've got to go. I'll show up on time tomorrow to spice things up, too much of the same routine gets boring after a while…"

Without a further word, he got up from his stool and left, Kurenai and Asuma remaining there in complete shock.

"Kurenai." Asuma's voice sounded deeply disturbed.

"Yeah?" So did Kurenai's.

"Did we just witness the day when Kakashi decided to be on time for something?" Asked the male, his voice sounding almost fearful.

"We did." Answered Kurenai, her voice also having that same quality as Asuma's.

"Am I in a genjutsu?" The bearded jounin asked.

"Kai!" Kurenai yelled, disrupting her chakra flow. "No, we're not. My god… I… we have to see this. If this is true…"

* * *

Kurenai blinked, seeing how Kakashi was gleefully putting his team through the ringer by making them spar while clinging to a tree. More than once, she saw one of them fall, hit the floor and then get right back up to continue fighting. Naruto had fallen much more than the other two, since they were ganging up on him.

Seeing how even despite that he carried the least bruises, it had to be necessary.

Still…

She had something more important to report. That day, after confirming that, in fact, Kakashi had met his team at the designated hour (5 AM, which explained why Kakashi went to bed early last night) and actually stuck around for practice, she decided she needed to speak to someone.

"He wasn't only on time…" She mumbled, her face white as sour cream. "He was… early!"

It was just her luck that Asuma and the Hokage were in the same room. So was Itachi as well as a messenger of the Fire Daimyo, who'd come to negotiate the price of the standard Tora Retrieval Mission (that mission, hilariously enough, was actually one of the most paying missions in the entire roster because no one wanted to do it otherwise) by which I mean he was basically a courier who carried a letter where the Daimyo agreed to the new price.

Everyone except the delegate paled immediately. Even Itachi, who was already pale. "Then… we're headed for a disaster of epic proportions." The Uchiha said, his tone of grim finality, as if there was nothing that could avert the incoming tide of darkness.

The messenger raised one eyebrow. "Epic proportions?" He asked. "What does that mean?"

Asuma was tempted to just say 'it means it'll be big. Dumbass.', but reigned in his need at the last moment, instead leaving his father to deal with the unaware man.

"What he means is that this will be huge." Explained the Hokage, which reminded Asuma that yeah, every once in a while the family resemblance was there, at the very least, in their attitudes. Which kinda made him wonder if he'd ever become a perverted grandpa. Well, it'd mean becoming an insanely epic old man, too, so it wasn't all that bad. "Much like the wrath of a god."

"Exactly." Asuma said, taking in a deep drag from his cigarette and letting it out as the eldest in the room took over again.

The Hokage continued. "Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies." He said, to give the man a clear image. "River and seas boiling!"

"Forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes!" Kurenai said, shaking her head at the horrifying idea.

"The dead rising from the grave!" Asuma said, gesturing wildly.

"Human sacrifice." Itachi began, his tone grim and completely serious, yet somehow frantic as well. "Dogs and cats, living together!" He added, shivering. "Mass hysteria!"

"Okay, okay, I get it, I get it!" The man said, holding up his hands as if to placate the hysterical nins as they continued to panic. "But why is he being early such a big deal? Aren't ninja supposed to be responsible?"

"They are. Kakashi is special." The Hokage informed.

* * *

"Okay, kids, you did good. In fact, you impressed me. So, just for that, today I'm gonna teach you a few basic ninjutsu you can use for fighting! First, though, we'll test your affinities. I thought I'd have to buy Chakra paper to do this, but I stole some from Itachi." He absent mindedly say.

"So that was why he was raving today. Itachi-nii keeps careful stock of everything he has, so he was quite shocked when he couldn't find it." Sasuke said, glaring at Kakashi.

"He'll get over it." Kakashi said, dismissively. "Anyway, I only got two. You already know your affinities, right Sasuke?"

Sasuke nodded. "Lightning is my main affinity and I've got a minor affinity in fire." The Uchiha informed, nodding at the tall jounin, who hummed appreciatively.

"Luckily for you, I know plenty of Raiton jutsu for you. It's my main affinity, as well, though I can more or less use all elements with a bit of proficiency." The Copy nin spoke, pulling out two rectangular papers from one of his jacket's pouches. "The way this works is simple, you pour chakra into it and it reacts to tell you your affinity. Telling you what to expect is pointless since I'll be able to tell you anyway."

Sakura nodded and took her slip, eyeing it curiously. She began pouring chakra into it, little by little, and it grew wet within seconds.

"Okay, that's water." Kakashi said.

"Obviously." Sakura snarked.

"Anyway, I know some Suiton jutsu that you should be able to do. So long as you've got a water source, water is actually one of the most versatile elements. The chakra control and handseals are a bit of a problem to most people, but you should be able to get through both with no problem." Kakashi said, eye-smiling at Sakura. "Though in your case I don't recommend focusing too much on elemental ninjutsu, since your chakra control would do you better as a medic or genjutsu specialist, the choice is ultimately yours."

Sakura nodded, humming in thought. It was a heavy decision, after all, and was ultimately about what she wanted to do with her career as a ninja as she was still in her forming years and thus where her development went today would have ripples in the future.

"And now, Naruto!" Kakashi said.

Sasuke was actually rather curious what Naruto's affinity would be. He didn't expect anything silly like a twelve year old genin have three affinities or something, that was ridiculous and needed a bloodline. There is a reason why two affinities are necessary for the jounin promotion for ninjutsu specialists, because it's hard to do and requires a degree of elemental mastery that only people who actually train their affinities whenever they can achieve.

Training an affinity can take upwards of a decade if you're not innately talented in it and most people were only innately talented in a single element.

Even so, Naruto was a box of surprises and anything could come out of him. Sasuke had not expected the specific details of the Kage Bunshin, when Kakashi had explained it. It was a shame that the memory backlash would eventually cause Naruto to develop a split personality disorder, because the idea of using the jutsu to speed right through chakra control and theoretical studies was… kind of awesome.

The jutsu took most of Sasuke's chakra to make a half dozen clones, though, and they lasted only a couple minutes, so it'd be useless for him. A bummer, but you can't have them all. Still… again, that only made Sasuke think about his friend and the burden that he'd carried for so long.

Naruto's ridiculous chakra was a byproduct of having the Kyuubi sealed within him. Some of its chakra supposedly bled into Naruto's own and in a pinch, Naruto could draw from the fox's pool, essentially giving Naruto pretty much unlimited chakra.

Maybe his affinity would be affected by the fox, too? The fox hadn't displayed any elemental affinity in its attacks, but what was to stop it from having one? Its chakra mixed with Naruto's, so it was a very real possibility…

Naruto poured chakra into the paper…

… And it got neatly cut in half.

"That's wind." Kakashi informed. "Fortunately for you, since you won yesterday, I've got a great sensei lined up for you." The silver haired Shinobi said. "Also, since you all did so well, I've decided to let you guys get a weapon for yourselves and I will even teach you what I know of whatever weapon you choose to use!"

Sasuke scoffed. "We could pick a really exotic weapon and then you'd have nothing to teach us."

Kakashi chuckled. "Ah, so nice to see you're still an innocent, cute little genin. Sasuke, I got deployed more often during the Third War than the frequency with which genin take D ranks." Explained the scarecrow-named-man as he patted Sasuke's head. "If it can be used as a weapon, I've seen it used as such, and back then I had to rely on the Sharingan a lot since I'm not as ridiculously strong as I am today!" Chirped the overly cheerful sensei. "Anyway, it's optional, guys, you don't have to if you don't want to, but it's always useful to have a second set of skills you can fall back to. Overspecialization will cripple you."

The three genin nodded at that. Dedicating yourself to a single set of skills, no matter what they were, would be crippling for a field Shinobi, since there were ways to counter just about anything and the few techniques that couldn't be countered often required huge sacrifices, were ridiculously complex or outright bloodlines.

All three of them knew that much.

"Anyway… Off we go, to the biggest weapon shop I know of!"

* * *

I'm glad to see you guys actually like my depiction of Naruto. Keep in mind, I don't hate the original. Heck, he works within part one precissely because he's an idiot, because the story is upbeat and generally doesn't require you to look deep into it. I loved Dragonball and while I can't say I will ever like Naruto as much as I did Dragonball (mostly because Dragonball is the first anime I ever remember watching from start to finish and the widely reviled GT is one of the few animes that can make me cry like a baby, no really, just put in Piccolo's final death or the last clipshow and I. Will. Cry.), I did like it and would probably like Shippuden more if Sasuke hadn't done like the Fonz and jumped the shark. It's not that it's bad, it's just... Not for me.

I also love writting cheerful!Kakashi. The fact that I can use him to include that reference to one of the greatest comedic lines of all time is just icing on the cake. I am a strong believer in Troll!Kakashi, as well.

As for the Sharinhax's capabilities... Sasuke didn't copy the ability to treewalk. He observed how Sakura was molding chakra in her feet with it and worked from there. You cannot copy something that isn't a jutsu with the Sharingan. I do not like the Sharinhax since it's basically the rocket thrusters behind the jetpack that the series used to jump the shark, which means I won't add more ridiculous powers to it. If I do anything to it, is take away some of its power because otherwise it's the Easy Mode button for the Uchiha. Maybe I'll just pronounce its weaknesses more than canon did.

As for the team sitting down to read porn... Let's just say that since Naruto isn't going to bring the funny like in canon, Kakashi has to pick up the slack. The fact that he also got his students hooked on the masterpiece that is Icha Icha is just a byproduct. For the record, the one who bought and gave them the copies of Icha Icha was Naruto. Yes, he's Team 7's pusher. And I do believe I explained that there are censored versions of Icha Icha floating around...

As for the fight scene... I've come to realize that when you're writing a fight in a fic, making it a complete curbstomp is... boring. Even if it's because one of the characters is holding back, it's more interesting if the fights are close and it's even better if the characters have to go all out when fighting each other. And even when it's a curbstomp, you have to make the losing side look good. Have them fight smart and actually pose a threat. Otherwise, it just gets dull after a while, and I'd have to introduce more and more powerful villains to keep up with the heroes' growing power.

If you've noticed, there are parallels in Sasuke and Naruto's relationship to how standard yaoi doujinshi work. This, as many other things, was done in purpose. Yes, it's entirely deliberate. I'm completely aware of the Ho Yay between them and milking it for all its worth. If Kishimoto can do it, then so can I! As I've said before... I frikkin' love teasing fangirls. It's just something that is endlessly amusing for me.

Hey, at least I'm upfront about it, unlike the many assholes who pull bait and switch!


	9. Kunoichi's Day In?

Whew. This took forever. Mostly because I AM attempting to focus mostly on Darkest Void right now. It's just that I can't sit on inspiration 'cause it's unlikely that it'll hit me again anytime soon, so I tend to try to get it out as soon as I can.

As per usual, thank y'all for the reviews and, if you have a concern I must answer, look at the bottom and if it isn't answered there, leave me a review or a PM! Don't be afraid to be insistent, that's what I'm here for!

* * *

"How did you get so strong, Forehead?" Ino blurted out, blushing and covering her mouth.

Sakura stumbled and almost hit the ground when her balance was shot to hell. She let go of the long shaft she'd been holding and the earth shook. Ino eeped and almost fell off the tree stump she'd been sitting on from sheer shock. Sakura nervously scratched her head and offered Ino a sheepish smile. "It's your fault I dropped it, piggy." She said, taking a deep breath and wiping the sweat off her brow.

"It's not my fault you're so clumsy you can't talk and fight at once!" Yelled the enraged blonde, once she picked herself up from the heap she'd ended up in and restoring her proper perch on the tree stump that was higher than it had any right to be.

"Yet I kicked your ass without even making an effort." Sakura said, tapping her chin. "Gee, I wonder which of us is the better kunoichi?"

Ino sighed in defeat, as she couldn't deny that simple fact. Sakura had beaten her, fair and square. Heck, the odds had been stacked against her and she'd still schooled Ino with no problem whatsoever. It was really humiliating to know that she had been neck to neck with Sakura back in the academy. "You still haven't answered the question." The blonde finally said, biting down the 'forehead' she wanted to add to the end of that sentence.

"Oh, that's really easy. I found out just how far down the ladder I was." Sakura said, shrugging. "Plus, Sasuke makes some great motivational speeches, if you don't mind him going at length on every reason why you suck as a Kunoichi, that is." She said, her green eyes locking onto the long, thick shaft of her weapon as she debated to herself whether or not to pick it up.

Ino raised an eyebrow. "You're friendly with him… you've got an advantage over me! That must be why you've been training so hard."

The pinkette blinked, then smacked her forehead. "God, I can't believe I used to be like that little more than a month ago." Sakura said, taking a deep breath. "Listen… At the start, I'll admit I wanted to be better so he would accept me and maybe look at me that way but… I stopped that when I realized that it's a really silly reason to be a Kunoichi."

Ino raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean with that?"

"Ino… You joined the ninja academy because your parents are ninja, your clan is a ninja clan and as the heiress you could not do anything else. You literally have no other goals in life than to be a ninja, so of course you don't know what I'm talking about." The pinkette explained, her eyes narrowing as she did. "I had to go against the wishes of my parents for me to take over the family business. I had no support whatsoever from my family because they are civilians and can't provide any support, other than economic support."

"What does that have to do with your reason to be a Kunoichi, Sakura?"

"I joined the academy because you were my only friend, Ino." Sakura said, bluntly. "Imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago, I looked back and saw that I had not only shelved the original reason why I decided to become a ninja, but I'd gone ahead and broke off our friendship in the process. I felt like a total bitch."

"Yeah, that sure didn't stop you from beating the tar out of me the other day!" Ino hotly replied, glaring at the pinkette who looked at her with a mixture of emotions ranging from amusement to anger.

"And it got you to ask me how I became capable of doing so, didn't it?" Sakura asked. "Sasuke and Naruto did me a favor. A huge favor. I decided I could do the same for you, Ino." The pinkette began to explain. "That… that is the difference between you and me right now, Ino. This gulf was created in just one month."

"But you still haven't told me how you managed to get this ridiculously strong! You've been dancing around the issue and told me nothing yet!" Sakura assumed that any lesson that Ino could've obtained from living with a clan famous for their ability to play mindgames as well as for their jutsu affecting the mind had flown right out the window when Ino got angry the first time.

It was mildly amusing to see that, after they'd debated how much of a threat she could be.

"Tell me, Ino… are you dieting?" Sakura asked.

"Of course I am, I have to keep this perfect figure…"

Sakura laughed. "Ino, all you're going to do by dieting is stunt your growth." She said, and she gestured towards the blonde's chest. "Yep." She said, seeing the blonde's face of horror at the idea. "You know something interesting? Unless you're actively trying to, so long as you continue training, you won't get fat. Do you think I'm fat? I've been eating a lot to keep up with my new training regime."

Ino narrowed her eyes. Sakura was barely any different than she'd been before… though she had to admit that when she looked more closely, the once thin girl was developing an actual figure instead of just being comparable to a noodle. "Okay… Diets are bad, then? That must be it! I'll surpass you in no time, Forehead!" the blonde cried victoriously.

This, once again, caused the stronger one to facepalm. "This isn't that simple, Ino." She hadn't expected Ino to be so dense to her insinuations. Usually, the blonde was far more receptive to information than what she was being now. Maybe, to a certain level, Ino just didn't want to think that she'd been wrong all her life.

She probably didn't want to think that she was not working hard enough.

"I've seen my teammates train, Ino… And I decided to catch up with them. I still can't go anywhere near close to the kinds of things they do." Sakura explained.

"Well, the lack of training isn't my fault! My sensei is a lazy slob who only hangs back and watches us stumble on our own!" Ino said, glaring at the pinkette.

"Hm… Who'd thought that both our sensei would have the same philosophy?" Sakura muttered, absent mindedly. "We train on our own. Kakashi-sensei shows up three hours late to every meeting. Well, a few times, he showed up early, but I don't think this will happen often." She said, waving the blonde's complaints away.

The Yamanaka blinked, apparently, engaging in training in her own time was an idea that was completely foreign to her. She had probably assumed she wouldn't need to train outside of her team meetings to get stronger and had probably assumed that Sakura was just training her weapon outside of team meetings due to the danger it posed to her teammates.

While the latter was, to a certain extent, true, it still did not change the fact that Sakura trained on her own time of her own volition.

"Anyway… That's the only way to get stronger. Through training. And… I still haven't even caught up to those two monsters." She said, her face settling on a grin. "Do you know how Sasuke got as strong as he is, Ino?"

"Sasuke is a genius, so he'd obviously be strong!" Ino replied, automatically. Then she blinked as her brain started to register the lessons Sakura was trying to impart.

It seemed Sakura had to fight the urge to facepalm every ten minutes. "He trains like a madman, Ino. He trains way past dark, he trains until he can't anymore. Do you know how Naruto got to be as strong as he was, Ino?"

This time, the blonde actually took the time to ponder. "I've never seen Uzumaki do anything but what was directly asked of him by the teachers and I don't think he ever put any effort into anything…" she pondered, leaning back and tapping her chin in a manner reminiscent of how Sakura had done earlier. They truly spent too much time together. "… Is he what a genius is like?"

The pinkette shook her head. "Sasuke told me that… Naruto used to train so hard and so much that he often broke his own arms and legs from attacking the dummies. That Naruto goes through ridiculously long chains of exercises with no stop to take a breather, a drink or to eat something. Naruto's strength doesn't come from any sort of natural genius, it comes from ridiculous amounts of hard work."

Ino seemed to be at a loss of what to say at the time. "But… they've always been described as geniuses."

Sakura laughed. "So have I." She said, freely. "But really, all that gave the appearance of me being a genius was simply studying a lot. Shikamaru is a genius, Ino. He can think one thousand and one ways out of the box. We? We're nowhere near as good as that, so we have to make up for it with sheer hard work. And to tell you the truth… it's incredibly satisfying. Yeah… I wouldn't have it any other way."

"HOW INCREDIBLY YOUTHFUL! I must commend you on the blazing fire of your youthful philosophy!"

"I beg of you, youthful Cherry Blossom, become my girlfriend!"

Sakura blinked.

Ino blinked.

There were crickets chirping.

Then Sakura's jade green eyes focused on the person that had appeared right the fuck out of nowhere, wearing green spandex (no, bad girl, don't look at the obviously chiseled physique barely hidden by the spandex!) along with his mini-me, who also sported a ridiculous physique, though not to the extent of the larger clone.

"… Hi?" Sakura tried.

* * *

Hinata was, in one word, flabbergasted. She knew Uzumaki was strong. She knew he was RIDICULOUSLY strong. However, as she massaged her nose, phantom pain lanced through her body. Two hits. She'd only taken two hits from him. The first had felt far worse than anything her cousin had ever hit her with and the second had almost knocked her out and broken her nose so much that she'd had to spend an entire day in the hospital for it to heal right.

Even medical ninja took time to heal you when the wound was harsh enough.

She had seen the chakra move. She had seen the burst of chakra accompanying movement. She had seen it abruptly stop just before Uzumaki hit her nose. She was flabbergasted because she didn't understand why he'd been holding back.

If that punch, at the strength he'd originally thrown it at, had hit her… she'd probably be much worse for wear than she was. As it was, she had just had to endure an overly fussy sensei and an order to take it easy on her nose for a while.

She knew she would never obtain the information from the boy himself. He'd been harder to pry information from than a rock in the academy, even for the teachers. She had never talked to Uchiha and even if she failed to be a Hyuuga in many aspects, she did not fail in disliking the Uchiha clan, mostly because it was composed of stuck up assholes.

Then again, her clan was composed mostly of stuck up assholes that were perhaps even worse than the Uchiha. She only thought that this added weight to her opinion on the matter of jerks.

In the end, asking Uchiha was out of the question.

Maybe… Maybe Haruno would know? The girl was on the other two's team, and she did seem to be on friendly terms with the both of them. She hadn't really talked with Haruno either, back at the academy. Absent mindedly, Hinata noted that, other than Kiba, who'd actually made an effort to befriend her, she hadn't really talked to anyone much.

Well, she wasn't entirely willing to fix that, so dwelling on it at the moment would be less than productive. Her father always harped on and on about how she had to stop crying over spilt milk or something like that. Hinata only wished she could stop caring.

When she did go to find Haruno, she found the pink haired girl alright. She also found her cousin's teacher and teammate. And Yamanaka Ino, too, but that was a small footnote on the presence of Maito Gai, one of Konoha's most openly eccentric jounin.

Normally, Hinata would chastise herself for thinking of anyone as insane, but at the moment, she was very much willing to let her thoughts slide. They were both crazy, although in a good way, for there was nothing quite as entertaining as Neji's reactions to his teammates and teacher. Sadly, Hinata didn't have time to hide in a corner and laugh her ass off at their antics.

"Who are you?" She heard Haruno ask.

"I am-"

"Hey yo Lee, I'm really happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish but we need to get back to our training first!" Maito Gai, if her memory served right, chastised. "We shall finish introducing ourselves later!"

Hinata blinked and saw both the Yamanaka and the Haruno in the clearing-turned-training ground blink as well, as everyone noticed the fact that, at no point, had they stopped running in place since wandering into the clearing.

"Alas, I must depart, my beautiful flower! But I shall be back!" Yelled the second Green Beast and took off running.

Gai smiled and struck a Nice Guy pose while still running. "Keep your youthful fires and you will rise to the top, Kunoichi-chan!" He called, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"I would wonder how he managed a shunshin without seals if I couldn't see the track of dust he left behind." Sakura muttered. Then she pumped her fist in the air. "Yes! That's it!" She said, and Hinata could swear she saw a lightning bulb flash over her head. "If those two can run that fast, I bet that they're even better fighters than Naruto is! I'll get him to train me and then I'll be able to kick his ass!"

Yamanaka Ino was left gaping.

Hyuuga Hinata was left gaping.

"You… can't be serious." The blonde said.

"Oh hell yeah I am! So far, I can't even last a couple seconds opposite Naruto… but with that guy's help, I'll take his ridiculously huge physical advantage and kick his ass with it!" Sakura cried, grinning fiercely with fire in her eyes.

"So… that's how it is, huh."

Hinata could've sworn Ino sounded almost sad right then. Almost as if she was saying something that deeply hurt her. Hinata was used to telling herself incredibly scathing truths, because knowing your flaws would help you work on them, although some are more difficult to work on than others.

Atleast Haruno Sakura seemed to know something about Uzumaki's colossal physical capabilities… Maybe she even knew just how strong he really was. With that thought in mind, Hinata strolled into the clearing, departing from the bushes and making her presence known.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd come out." Sakura said, good naturedly.

Hinata did not eep. Dignified Hyuuga did not eep. "Huh? How… How did you know where I was hiding?"

The pinkette laughed at the Hyuuga's predicament. "You didn't even use Genjutsu to hide yourself and you made a lot of noise when you sat on the bushes." She stated, shrugging. "I kind of made the same mistake twice against Sasuke." She admitted.

"So… you knew I was there?" She ventured.

"You got here just before those two got here." Sakura said. "Anyway… what is it, Hyuuga-san?"

Hinata sighed, seeing how there really was no point in dancing around the issue. "… Why does Uzumaki-san hold back so much?"

There was a moment of silence. "Holy shit, he does?" Ino nearly yelled. "I've seen that guy fight and he never pulls his punches!"

Hinata shook her head. "He does. The Byakugan allows me to see the movements of someone's chakra. Particularly skilled people, like my uncle, can gauge someone's physical strength from the amount of chakra they utilize when they're exerting themselves." She explained. "Normally, the movements are very subtle, but since Uzumaki-san has so much chakra, they are very obvious." She left out the fact that actually controlling those instinctive surges of chakra to increase their output or decrease the emissions was insanely hard and that was why it was so incredibly hard to sucker-punch a user of the Byakugan.

Shaking her head, Sakura let out a loud sigh. "Naruto is… ridiculously strong. And when I say that, I mean it." She said, folding her hands over her still flat chest. "I… I don't think I've ever seen him cut loose. Not really."

"Not even I have seen him cut loose, Sakura." Came a sudden voice, startling everyone in the clearing and directing them to someone hanging, upside-down, from a tree branch. It was… Sasuke!

"Uchiha-san!" Hinata said, in manner of greeting, while Ino was simply swooning over his badass entrance. Or so she thought, anyway.

"Sasuke." Sakura said. "Are you sure? I mean, you always press on him when you two spar."

Sasuke shook his head. "Have you ever seen him use Ninjutsu in our spars? Or Genjutsu? Or take the initiative, at all?" The Uchiha explained, jumping to the ground, somersaulting so he landed on his feet. He ignored Ino swooning over his acrobatics and directed his gaze to the three girls.

"Anyway, why are you here?" Sakura asked, raising one eyebrow. "I thought we had free training today."

"We do." Sasuke said, nodding to her. "I can't find Naruto anywhere, Kakashi-sensei is busy getting laid and I don't have anything better to do than stick around to help you in your training." The Uchiha admitted rather shamelessly.

"Aww, you really do like me!" Sakura teased, throwing him a coy smile.

One black eyebrow was raised in her direction.

"Anyway, why didn't you bring it with you?" Ino was suddenly very interested into what 'it' was, but couldn't voice her question because Sakura immediately continued. "I thought you wanted to get as much training as possible with it…"

"I do." Sasuke admitted. "I even found that one of my distant cousins can teach me how to use it better. She's out on a mission, though, so I have to wait until she gets back for more training."

"That makes sense." Sakura admitted. "I'll join you in a couple minutes, but first, I have girl things to do. Now shoo, shoo, I'll find you later!" She promised, waving the Uchiha away.

Sasuke grunted, turned around and leaped into the trees, disappearing into a blur shortly afterwards. Hinata narrowed her eyes at his retreating back.

"Oooh! So that's your angle!" Ino declared, a wide smile growing on her face. "You want to get me out of the way so you can have him all to yourself! Joint training my ass!" She yelled, pointing at Sakura

The pinkette, however, merely grinned just as widely. "So you're giving me your blessing, Ino?"

The Yamanaka sputtered as her teasing backfired on her and she could not find words to properly counter Sakura's comeback.

"Okay… So…" Hinata said, sighing.

"If you want the truth, you're gonna have to ask him, I guess." Sakura said, shrugging. "Good luck getting any information out of him, though." She said. She knew, from Sasuke's rather heated rant on why the Hyuuga were such pricks given during their one-hour-long strategy session, that every self-respecting Hyuuga learnt some degree of body-reading, which helped their ability to predict attacks (which was manual instead of automatic, like the Sharingan's).

It would do absolutely no good to know how to read his body. Uzumaki never attacked in the first place, he was all about countering other's attacks.

"Anyway! If you really want to get stronger, Ino… then I invite you to train with me when you're free. After you get past the whole wanting to die from the pain your muscles are in thing, it's actually satisfying to feel the ache that tells you you've been training hard." Said Sakura, nodding to herself and Ino. "You're invited too, Hinata! I'll see if I can get Sasuke and Naruto onboard with the idea. Well, it all depends on Sasuke, anyway…"

Hinata raised an eyebrow. Her own team had conflicting dynamics in that Kiba wanted to be the 'alpha' as he put it, while Shino argued that Kurenai was their leader and when she wasn't around, Shino himself was the one in charge simply because he would make the more logical decisions. Kiba argued that he was the strongest (which she had to admit, he was) of the group and therefore should be the one to lead.

While their teamwork worked so long as Kurenai held the lead (because Kiba recognized that he couldn't even scratch Kurenai's skin), it crashed apart as soon as they were left to their own devices. Thankfully, both of her teammates listened to her, most of the time, as she was the voice of reason in their debate.

This team, meanwhile… seemed to have no trouble. Sakura had no problem delegating the leadership to Sasuke and from what Hinata had seen, Uzumaki had absolutely no problem in following orders or suggestions from either of his teammates, while Sasuke seemed to be willing to offer an explanation for his action as well as put up with Sakura's smart-ass comments.

Hinata shook her head. "I… thank you for the offer, but when training with my team is over I have to head home to receive training from my family." Training that, she would admit any day, she sorely needed.

Ino smirked. "You'll see, Forehead, I'll take this training of yours and blow you out of the water! When I'm done, I'll kick so much ass that Sasuke will marry me on the spot!"

Both Kunoichi felt a large drop of sweat run down the back of their necks. "This… might take a bit longer than I hoped it would…" Sakura said, sighing. "Listen, Ino… you don't have a chance with Sasuke. None whatsoever. Zero. Nada. Zip. Your chances with Sasuke are equal to mine. You get that?" The pinkette explained, grabbing and shaking Ino's shoulders.

"Wha- How can you be so sure, Forehead?" The still-in-denial fangirl asked.

"Sasuke told me himself." She said, letting her go. "He didn't have any interest in us back at the academy because he thought that we were all spoiled-rotten, lazy, perverted and overall insufferable wastes of the Shinobi System's time." Explained the pinkette cheerfully. "Though he said it in… much more colorful language."

Hinata blinked. She knew it. All Uchiha are pricks who care nothing for the feelings of the people they're putting down. Hell, she thought that THAT was a harsh way of referring to his fangirls, and she didn't think particularly highly of them in the first place! Then again, it was mostly because they liked the jerk in the first place, but it still counts!

"Naruto was worse, though." She said, shivering. "When I thought I was improving… I kind of got a head full of hot air." Sakura admitted, a sheepish smile on her face.

"Don't tell me you…" Hinata began, a look on her face that clearly said 'dood ur so retarded' as an idiotic vampire once oh so eloquently put it.

"Went and challenged him." The 'him' was very obviously referring to Sakura's blond teammate.

Sakura laughed. "I kind of did." She admitted. "Don't ever challenge Naruto to a one on one fight without a teacher to stop it before it can get dangerous." She added. "Trust me, you won't like the result."

She shivered and noticed that both of them were looking at her with horror in their faces.

"What? I wasn't stupid or brave enough to do that. Sasuke did it for me."

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else…

Sasuke blinked.

"I've been training the whole week! I'll first beat you, then I'll beat Uzumaki too!" Kiba growled. "Right here, right now, chump! A one on one fight between us!"

Sasuke looked at Kiba for a full ten seconds before he threw his head back and laughed. And laughed hard. "Kiba… Back in the academy, with their rules for a spar, you were a challenge to defeat." Sasuke admitted, cracking his neck. "Right here and now, though?" The Uchiha said, falling into stance. "You're not even a stepping stone!"

Something unrepeatable came from Kiba's throat, actually causing Sasuke to blush and be distracted when Kiba lounged for him, Akamaru following closely behind, already transformed into Kiba's likeness. Sasuke had to admit that Kiba was significantly harder to defeat when he was fighting with Akamaru…

… If Sasuke stuck to Taijutsu. He was not used to fighting multiple opponents at once. Maybe Naruto, with his Kage Bunshin, could help remedy that, painful though that training might be. Regardless, the Uchiha ducked under what he supposed was Akamaru's attack and drove an elbow up his gut, causing him to land in a heap instead of on all fours like he'd intended to. A minor, glancing blow that had only temporarily disoriented the canine-turned-humanoid.

The Uchiha blazed through handsigns as Kiba yelled the name of his partner and dashed in for an attack. Seconds afterwards, the Kiba that was still in a heap moved to tackle Sasuke.

"Shunshin No Jutsu. (Body Flicker)" Sasuke whispered as a burst of smoke and leaves appeared between the two pronged attack.

There was the sound of a poof of smoke accompanied by a loud whine and a yell of pain. "Dick move, man!" Kiba yelled, rubbing the top of his head.

"You were about to Headbutt my crotch." Sasuke retorted. Kiba's face was flushed from exertion and embarrassment. Their admittedly short bout had been fast paced and had winded them both, though only Kiba lay panting.

Admittedly, his strategy had been to move around like a madman and force Sasuke to keep track of two fast moving targets, so it'd make sense that he'd be the most tired. "No matter…"

The Inuzuka stood up on wobbly legs and got a feral look on his face. "Today… Today is the day in which I mark you as my rival, Uchiha!"

Sasuke blinked. "Really?" He asked. "You're doing this." He added. "Sensei has Maito Gai, one of the top jounin in the village. Itachi has Shisui, second only to Itachi himself and Naruto has me, and I kick a lot of ass. Why do I get the crappy self-proclaimed rival?"

"Hey!" Yelled the Inuzuka. "What makes you think you're even worthy of being my rival?" Kiba said, glaring at Sasuke.

"You just declared me your rival yourself, dumbass." Said Sasuke, completely deadpan and crossing his arms so his deadpan expression had that much more deadpan in it.

Kiba paused. Then he took a few threatening steps forward. "It doesn't matter, anyway! You're my rival and that's all that matters!"

Sasuke sighed. It would be a long, long time until Sakura was finished with whatever she was doing.

* * *

"Sakura, I spent this entire morning pounding into Kiba the fact that he is not my rival. I'm in a really shitty mood." The Uchiha Informed his teammate. "So, if you'd hurry this up, I'd appreciate it lots and lots."

Sakura laughed. "Oooh! You spent the entire morning pounding Kiba?" Sakura said, giggling. "Oh my!"

Sasuke blinked. "Why did you have to say that? Now I'll have nightmares for the rest of the week!"

"You're going to have erotic dreams of your partner for the rest of the week?" She asked, an exaggerated mock-shock tone giving extra credence. She even brought her hands to her face to gasp. "Oh my!" She cried, getting flushed as she did.

"DAMMIT, stop doing that, it's creepy!" Sasuke yelled.

Sakura burst out laughing and Sasuke had to resist the urge to burn her to ashes on the spot with his Goukakyuu no jutsu. "Lighten up. You look as if you got something shoved up your butt earlier!" She burst out laughing again.

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. He ran through handseals.

"Okay, okay, shutting up now." Sakura informed him, lifting her hands. "Anyway…" She said, as she grabbed a shaft as long as she was tall and lifted a massive axe that dwarfed her with clear and noticeable effort. Without saying a word, she brought it down and smashed it against the ground.

It did not go very deep, just enough to keep the heavy weapon upright.

"So… Ninjutsu training."

"Sakura… please never do that again." Sasuke informed, as he stared at the giant axe buried but a couple inches away from him. There was a wide margin between him and the blade, just wide enough that Sasuke had full trust in her ability to miss but… "At least until you can lift that thing with one hand."

"I don't know if that's even possible." Sakura said, tapping her chin. "Eh, if there's a way, I'm sure I'll figure it out. Eventually."

Sasuke sighed. "I'll see if there's anything I can find in the Uchiha library about weapons that compensate for something."

"Look who's talking!" Sakura said, glaring at him.

Sasuke took a deep breath and stilled himself. "Ninjutsu Training Lesson One… Sometimes, you don't get the time to go through your handsigns, during those times, your best bet is to… DODGE!"

Sakura yelped and began running away. "NO MORE DODGE TRAINING, PLEASE!" She yelled, as Sasuke ran behind her, randomly spitting small fireballs at her as they ran laps around the training field.

* * *

"Holy crap." Asuma said.

"I KNEW IT!" Kurenai yelled.

"And that's the story of why Team Kakashi is no longer allowed to have 'free training' days." Kakashi said, grinning widely at the bar where he often met up with the other sensei to discuss the particularities of their joint training exercises. "Now, as for why Team Kakashi is no longer allowed to take babysitting missions, well, this one is actually rather fun too…"

"Twenty Ryo says it's Naruto's fault." Asuma whispered.

"You're on." Kurenai replied.

* * *

Obvious Ghostbusters Shout Out Is Obvious. Really, I love that whole bit and I love having Kakashi to be able to make it happen..

Itachi is not as ridiculously serious, grim, angsty and what not here as he is in canon. Here, he didn't have to kill Shisui since the Uchiha clan wasn't planning to rebel. All ideas of dissent were shelved when the fact that Itachi is the prime candidate to succeed the Yondaime was revealed. I've always wondered why that wasn't done. Itachi had the fame, he had the power, he had the experience and he had the necessary dedication and love for the village. Plus, if it allowed him to save his clan, I wouldn't see him outright saying no to such a proposition.

As for those wondering about what Naruto's relationship with Jiraiya will be... You'll have to keep reading on to find out. If I gave out the plot, it wouldn't be fun to read this, now would it?

There's a very legitimate complaint in the result of the fight being predictable... I intended it to be. The fight is not so much in the benefit of Team 7, who gain nothing from it, but rather to set up the scene at the top. I do not like the fact that females are almost always useless save for a few precious exceptions, but I can't have them suddenly kicking ass. So I need to givethem a reason why they'd want to grow stronger and train faster. Ino getting her ass handed to her by someone she thought was her equal and shown just how weak she really is provides her with insight.

I'm working on her motivation.

As for Hinata... She, for obvious reasons, doesn't have the crush on Naruto she had in canon, nor does she have the MASSIVELY HUGE problems she did. She has more willpower than a twig this time around and it's not solely dependant on Naruto encouraging her this time around. Nevertheless, she's still under a lot of pressure and so is understandably suffering from the fear that she might, or rather will, fail to meet people's expectations. This requires a lot of work to 'fix', so as to say, through character development, but I'll do my best, 'ttebayo!

My god, I can't believe I just wrote that.

I WILL deny that Team 7 curbstomped everyone. At the very least, you can be assured that I tried my best to make the fight interesting and to make the losing side look good. Team 7 is actually fairly superior in terms of stats, right now, to the rest of their peers, however if they hadn't fought smart, they'd have lost. They almost lost when Shikamaru enacted his plan.

As for this fic having a plot... Well, I will try to go through the series' canon. The events that the nails I've inserted have no influence in would play mostly the same, while those affected by the butterfly's wingbeats will be different. You'll have to keep reading to find out, however, how far the ripples go...

I also recently noticed the error that adamrpg pointed out, and I now understand what I was thinking when I made it. Basically, it's a joke regarding how fanfics that have Naruto as a Gary Stu often have him developing three or more affinities at age 12. I made the joke entirely on that regard and did not properly adequate it to this world, in which Naruto is not twelve but rather ten. I apologize, everyone, and I will leave that typo there not out of laziness (though laziness certainly contributes to it) but because you deserve to laugh at my mistakes. I certainly feel very dumb about it, believe me. It's my own universe, dammit, I should be better than this...


	10. What Could Have Been

_If you feel I've jumped the shark with this one, you're entitled to doing so. But still, I do urge you to at the very least give these following developments a chance, no matter how stupid they might seem at first glance - Creed of the Fanfic Writer with Self Esteem Issues._

Anyway! That's a warning. Some people might think I jumped the shark with this one, but worry not, there is a reason for everything! And if there isn't, I'll make up one! Yeah! Reviews feed me the fuel that I need for the fire to burn and produce more fanfic!

Also, do please take a look at some of my Naruto one-shots, yes? I'd be most thankful if y'all did. It might not look like it, but I do place effort in them, honest! Somewhat!

* * *

_Somewhere in The Land Of Fire…_

"Just admit it. We're lost." Sakura snapped, her tone sounding like someone who wanted to strangle their audience.

"Maa, we're not lost. We just don't know where we are." Kakashi helpfully informed her, smiling like someone had just given him candy. He was clearly enjoying this too much.

"You could solve this, you know, in two seconds flat. I refuse to believe a goddamn jounin got lost in the Land of Fire." Sasuke added, purposefully not acknowledging the fact that Sakura was right and they were indeed lost. Stupid border patrol missions. "Seriously."

Hatake Kakashi was a man who knew how to get under people's skin, and he was the best at it. Sasuke was beginning to consider the brief moments where he'd be serious enough to actually teach them shit, such as when he'd taken the time to get them started on the jutsu he'd promised not too long ago.

"Anyway, let's rest up here. We've got a pretty big leeway on when we're supposed to return and since I've already sent our report, I'm going to go ahead and claim the rest as a training trip."

In truth, Sasuke was irritated that Naruto had already gotten the basic wind jutsu he'd been given down (he'd even managed to cut a leaf in record time!) while he was still struggling with the relatively simple Jibashiri (Electromagnetic Murder). Really, this was just humiliating.

He'd been practicing Raiton for far longer than Naruto had Fuuton, but not only had the blond little boy blazed right through developing his affinity (to the point that Naruto was right now sitting in front of a rock trying to slice it to ribbons with wind chakra alone) and had even managed to execute a workable Reppusho (Gale Palm) on his third attempt. Heck, Sakura with her chakra control was still trying to make water bend to her whims.

He was also a bit angry that he was not allowed to simply burn down the forest and pin it on Kakashi. As all Uchiha, Sasuke was a bit of a pyromaniac and had a tendency to solve his problems through violence in most cases, whether verbal or physical.

But the worst part was that he was bored. As some would say, he was bored as shit.

This would normally not be such a huge issue. He was bored much of the time he spent in Konoha, but usually he was too busy getting the crap beaten out of him by Naruto, which usually left him in too much pain to bother analyzing his current mood, or instilling into Sakura the many ways in which one could increase one's own strength, at the cost of one's own comfort, to notice it.

"I'm going for a walk." He announced.

Kakashi sat up (when had he laid down?) and looked at Sasuke over the pages of his book. "Take your teammates with you. I'll be here taking a nap." Kakashi informed, before leaping up and disappearing into the treetops. Absent mindedly, Sasuke wondered if he should've brought his copy of the small orange book…

… It had been a gift from Naruto and the least he could do was take a look after all…

… And he totally ended up reading it for the plot, or so he says, anyway.

"Well, I was getting pretty damn bored of trying to convince a water bottle to fly." Sakura informed, cracking her neck to get rid of the kinks formed from several minutes of remaining still. She absent mindedly drank her water bottle and tossed it into her pack. "It's harder controlling substance than I'd thought." She offered as an explanation.

Sasuke sighed. "I know the feeling. Pressurizing Chakra to heat it up wasn't fun for me, either." He said. At her blank stare, he decided that maybe he had to elaborate. "It's how you create fire-natured Chakra to use in Katon jutsu." Explained the Uchiha, turning around and looking at where Naruto still sat in front of a boulder conjured from one of Kakashi's Doton jutsu. Or was it a rock?

Meh, the distinction was unimportant at this point.

The blond seemed to catch on to the fact that he was staring at and turned an inquisitive gaze towards his gathered teammates.

"We're going for a walk." Sakura informed. "Wanna come with us?" She asked. A little over a month ago, she'd be so giddy at the prospect of a walk alone through a forest with her crush that she'd most likely go weak at the knees from the mere thought of what they could do alone. Right now, however, Sakura was aware that all that their walk might entail would be dialogue regarding their few common interests and anything interesting they came across.

Naruto stood up, sent one last glance at the boulder he was trying to slice, which only had a small dent on it, and wordlessly joined Sasuke and Sakura as they set out to brave the depths of the forest, all the while marking nearby trees as they moved through what little open space they could find.

Oddly enough, there was an almost visibly formed path that they chose to follow. If there was hard, packed dirt beneath the vegetation, it'd long been consumed by the plants' growth, and if there wasn't, then it might just be a freaky coincidence that there was an easy-to-traverse (for Shinobi, anyway) path that they could follow.

It had taken them about five minutes to find the tail end of it, at which point they'd turned around and decided to follow it the other way. It ended on a small pond that was basically a hole in the ground, probably dug from a jutsu, filled with rainwater. The other end might hold something interesting, however, so they walked.

The silence was broken, multiple times, by either random dialogue on their parts, mostly Sakura, or by the sounds of the forest itself. Along with that one bear who'd foolishly attacked them and gotten knocked out for its trouble.

"Why the hell are there even bears in a place like this?" Sakura asked.

"We're deep into the forests created by the Shodaime Hokage's bloodline, Sakura." Sasuke informed. "As far as I know, freaky things happen in the forests created with Mokuton. Ever heard of the Forest of Death?"

Sakura nodded. "That forest where everything is lethal, right?" She asked, seeing Sasuke's nod, she continued. "Was it made by the Shodaime?"

"Bingo." Sasuke informed. "The Uchiha archives have a lot of information on the Senju. A lot of it has been proven wrong with the years, mind you, but since we're one of the founding clans of Konoha along with the Senju themselves, we have a lot that they provided themselves."

"And I guess that information on the Mokuton was in there somewhere." Sakura concluded. "But I thought that even the Shodaime wasn't fully sure on the limits of his power." She admitted.

"Who knows?" Asked Sasuke. "Given that most of the archives I've read were penned by someone with a clear bias against Hashirama as a person, all I can say is that he was an idiot." He explained. "It's hard to get something about the Senju that's not insulting from the Uchiha library. We don't like them very much."

Sakura stifled a giggle at Sasuke's predicament.

"Life." Naruto said, suddenly, almost causing both of them to stumble. Sakura was about to open her mouth to voice her shock, but then she closed it as Naruto turned to them. "Mokuton was just a name… It was… control over life itself."

Sakura was almost ground to a halt by that point, but they managed to still walk and talk. "What do you mean?" She asked, clearly perplexed.

Sasuke was also entirely too curious for his own good. "Control over life?" He asked. "That sounds… incredible. Ridiculous, even." He said, frowning. He doubted Naruto would speak for no reason, and the blond boy had not proven himself well informed before. Well, at least not enough to make Sasuke believe his words instantly.

Then again, the boy WAS the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi and that alone meant that Sasuke was not truly aware of the depths of either his power or his knowledge, as the beast itself might have imparted its knowledge on its host.

However, with a quick glance at him and then at the ground, Sasuke found himself dropping the issue. There was no point in further trying to pry the information from him. Other than Kakashi suddenly turning up and ordering him to speak about it, that is, and Sasuke was not willing to force Naruto to do something he didn't want to do.

He was, after all, loathe to betray the trust that Naruto had implicitly placed on him by granting him knowledge of his status as a Jinchuuriki and as the weapon of Konohagakure no Sato.

"That's difficult to believe." Sakura agreed, distantly. "Though, from what I know, isn't the Senju clan supposedly descended from the Sage of Six Paths himself?" She mused. "It could be…"

"So are the Uchiha." Sasuke replied, shrugging. "We don't do any of that, though."

They were nearing the end of the path on the forest. They could see as much, because it ended in a cave. Though calling it a cave was giving it too much credit. It was more of a bunch of rocks pilled together in the form of passable shelter over a hole. Not all that bad, for it had obviously endured very long, if the green wildlife clinging to the rock was anything to go by.

Deciding they might as well explore it (under the pretense of checking for enemy ninja hiding within, if anyone asked), the three wandered down, carefully walking down the ramp that still vaguely had some of the steps of what used to be stairs carved into it.

It was not a very deep cave, however, thought past a certain point it still became dark, as no light filtered from above. "Housenka No Jutsu(Phoenix Flower)" Muttered the Uchiha, letting out a very underpowered fireball that floated for a few seconds, lighting the room long enough for the Uchiha to spot a nearby piece of dry wood.

Without a second thought, he grabbed it and inspected it up close, once they retreated back into the light. "It's a workable torch." He said, absent mindedly. "It's not particularly ideal as one, but it'll work." He said.

He took a deep breath and blew a VERY underpowered Goukakyuu No Jutsu, one he didn't even need handsigns for, into the torch to light it.

Once it was lit, he heard Sakura cheer. "It was getting pretty scary down there without anything to light the way." She said.

"You're a goddamn ninja." Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes. "You can't tell me you're afraid of the dark."

Sakura scoffed. "I'm properly paranoid about wandering into a goddamn dark cave in a forest created by the Shodaime Hokage, forests which have been known for holding all manners of creatures that are lethal to even chunin." The pinkette explained. "Need I say more?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to retort, but then he noticed that they were walking inside anyway and bit back on it. They were already past the area they'd found the torch in and going deeper, until the cave widened and, like Sasuke had assumed, turned out to be not all that deep, really.

It ended in a rather large dome-shaped room that had a simple hole in the center with what appeared to be a couple of sticks in a crude imitation of a standard well you'd find on a village to extract water from the depths of the earth. There was no bucket, though.

There were also a few bones off to the side that were clearly gnawed. If Sasuke had to guess, someone had built this place to be a safehouse at some point and had either abandoned it or not been there for a very long time.

Well, they'd report it to Kakashi who would make sure it wasn't a threat and from then on, nothing more would change. Despite the lack of a bucket, Sasuke decided they might as well try to get a little water, he was getting pretty thirsty already.

He walked up to the hole and peered down… only to find the water only a foot or two away from him. Well, that was convenient. It seemed clean, too, as the hole had probably been made with a jutsu and on solid rock. There was, however, the simple fact that they couldn't simply trust it to be clean like that.

There was no water expert with them, but he could go with Sakura in a pinch, and she needed the practice anyway. Nodding to himself, he turned to Sakura. "Can you try to get clean water from here?"

Sakura quickly realized where Sasuke was going at. "I can try." When she manipulated water, she only moved the water itself, if she did so in a specific manner. It was slower and probably more tiring than simply bringing up a stream of water, but the water would most likely be safe for drinking. She took a deep breath and concentrated on her Chakra and let it flow into the water…

… Only to gasp and jump backwards when the water lit up. Symbols started to appear etched on the wall, their effulgent glow making them readable even in the penumbra brought on by the low light of the torch. Well, readable to the extent of seeing them, anyway, as they were indecipherable.

Most likely seals. "We triggered a trap mechanism!"

"It doesn't seem like it…" Sakura reasoned, as she stood up and looked around. "Nothing seems to be happening." She said. "Just the glowing symbols."

Sasuke's eyes instantly went to his smallest teammate, who seemed to be looking around with an almost bored expression. He sensed no danger, apparently. The blond walked around, inspecting the seals on the wall briefly, before sitting down in front of the hole that had the still glowing water.

"What is this place…" Sakura muttered, as she herself inspected the seals, only to find nothing that she could decipher about her situation.

There was a loud growl that startled all three of them. Sakura's eyes widened to immense proportions as she saw a colossal figure emerging from the entrance to the wide room. She took a few steps back when she noticed both her teammates had frozen as she had in sight of the…

She had no idea what to call that thing. It was sort of like a bear, but it was too huge. It had very long and sharp claws growing where there shouldn't have been any. There was also the fact that it opened its maws to roar and showed its glistening teeth, dripping with saliva.

"Dammit!" Sasuke yelled, as the bear thing rushed forward and broke their group, though Naruto remained perfectly still as the beast went flying over him. Sometimes, being pitifully short has its advantages, it seemed. The beast skid past Naruto's sitting form but quickly turned around and lashed with its left claw, forcing Naruto to jump back, lest he get smacked.

"Give me wind!" The Uchiha commanded.

Naruto replied with a nod and a jump to position right next to the Uchiha.

Sasuke grinned, seeing that the creature was backed against a corner. He began to go through handseals, a sequence he remembered very well. "Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled, expelling the Grand Fireball compressed into a much smaller, but hotter form.

This was the pinnacle of his training with the jutsu, the ability to manipulate it far beyond the point where most Uchiha cared to. He was not all that good, in general, with the usage of fire jutsu. He could do some of them alright if he put his mind to it. He was far, far better with the use of Raiton.

The few Katon he knew, though, he knew well. He was probably second only to the dedicated fire ninjutsu specialists in his usage of the Goukakyuu and the Housenka, both of which he could manipulate fairly well.

And all of this from merely a week of Kakashi actually teaching him how to keep his lightning chakra in check to help him properly use his minor fire affinity.

The ball of fire was approaching a bluish color as it approached the suddenly very, very afraid giant-bear thing that had probably planned on making them its dinner.

"Fuuton: Reppusho!" Naruto's soft voice carried a weird sense of power behind it, as Sasuke felt the wind suddenly ripple. That was odd. Wind jutsu, like fire jutsu, were usually expelled through the mouth. Anyway, there wasn't time to ponder the jutsu's oddities.

The beast had prepared to jump to avoid the small fireball. However, when the gale palm's after effect struck the small fireball, all hell broke loose. Sasuke had severely underestimated the potency of the combined jutsu. He hadn't expected it to be this strong. The simple fact that he hadn't deigned to test this combination in a controlled environment was probably caused by the fact that Naruto had just learned Reppusho that same day.

Regardless, he was actually glad when Sakura knocked both him and Naruto to the floor by diving for them and smacking them against the hard rock floor. It'd probably bruise, but it was better than the searing wave of heat that passed over them. He briefly saw a flash of white as the flames exploded against the poor creature.

It got incinerated within instants.

So did mostly everything else in the cave near it. Given that it'd been close to the middle and the glowing well… the water had gotten vaporized and turned into the now heavy and hot mist that was making their stay in the cave all the more annoying.

It took a long few moments for the mist to finally cool down enough for it to be safe to stand up, or so it felt. None of them was sure how long they'd spent just laying there and trying their hardest to ignore the blistering hear. Sakura was also heard muttering a few colorful curses and ranting about how idiotic it was to use a jutsu combination like that.

The torch was out, and even if it'd been on, the mist would've made it close to impossible to see. So, muttering a curse, Sasuke decided that they might as well just walk out already…

However, he only managed to take three steps in the direction that he believed his teammates had been thrown at. His body made a dull thudding sound when he hit the ground against the ground.

* * *

Sasuke groaned. Then his eyes fluttered open. Then he groaned again and shut them tightly. He rolled around and brought his hands to his eyes. A hiss of pain escaped him as he rubbed them. The pain subsided a few minutes afterwards, however, he still did not dare open his eyes. Giving them a few more rubs just in case, he decided to open his eyes…

… That's odd.

His recollection of the events leading up to his unconsciousness was a bit vague (one could even say it was foggy), but he still recalled a cave, not soft green grass.

"Hn. You're awake." An unfamiliar, cold voice rang through the air. Sasuke blinked. His surroundings were still coming into focus (and his eyes still stung slightly from the light), so he was only vaguely aware of them. A blindsided Shinobi is a dead Shinobi, and Sasuke had, on pure reflex, given whoever had just spoken his backside.

"Oi, teme, I brought Sensei and Sakura-chan!" came another one, this time it was high pitched and kind of grating to Sasuke's ears, but it was still notably warmer than the one that had spoken before. "Now, can you tell us what you found?"

Sakura?

It wasn't all that uncommon as a name, Sasuke supposed. Still, he blinked the last few specks of blackness still swimming in his vision away and turned around, only to come face to face with…

… Himself.

"Huh."

Both he and his doppelganger stared at each other for a full ten seconds. The other him seemed to have a guarded, almost outright hostile disposition. He held himself with an almost palpable air of distance. It was not unlike what Sasuke noticed Itachi often acted like to his fangirls (ironically, he did it entirely because they loved it, for they had a tendency to gift him sweets and thus he felt obliged to keep them content in turn).

"The hell?" Sasuke blurted out, quickly reacting and leaping back to put some distance between himself and his doppelganger. His eyes strayed, for a brief instant, to the rest of his doppelganger's entourage. Sasuke's eyes, however, stopped on a blond boy slightly shorter than himself, with whisker marks on his cheeks who sported an outright baffled face, his jaw gaping.

Sasuke blinked. "Naruto, is that you?" The Uchiha asked. Then he shook his head. "What am I saying… this must be a genjutsu." He concluded, mostly to himself. It was a terrible genjutsu, even. Then again, he had to consciously decide not to question WHY someone would make a genjutsu this dumb.

He decided he had to check everyone else out for inconsistencies. Sakura was, in terms of height and overall appearance, mostly on the spot, but Sasuke had been the one to note the changes in her body to encourage her to train. Up to and including the slight difference in her bust as well as the fact that her arms had started to look like such instead of stiff noodles.

Sakura was also off, then.

Kakashi was perfect, though, down to the bored expression. Seriously, the man was terribly easy to imitate.

There was also a man that Sasuke instantly assumed had to be a drunken hobo, from the beard, the bottle of sake on his hand, the expression that said 'I'm not drunk enough to be seeing this shit yet' and the fact that his brown shirt had sake stains on it nearly everywhere.

His doppelganger also had one single difference with him. Sasuke was one inch taller than him, if his estimates were correct.

"There are… Two… Sasuke-kun…" He saw Sakura breathing heavily, with a very bright blush on her face. That was the same she'd acted before she'd gotten her act together. So apparently they had some knowledge of their targets. He filed it for later questioning.

If Naruto hadn't been so brutally different from the one Sasuke knew, he might have been fooled. His eyes flashed red with the Sharingan and the genjutsu crashed to pieces…

…

…

"Okay." Sasuke began sighing. "So it's a very advanced genjutsu, if the Sharingan can't break it."

The doppelganger growled. "He's got the Sharingan!" the fake-Sasuke yelled.

"Of course I do, jackass. Everybody in my direct family does!" Sasuke instantly retorted. "Now, who the hell are you and why do you look like botched versions of my teammates!?"

"You're the one who's transformed to look like me!" The doppelganger retorted, before rushing forward.

With his Sharingan active, Sasuke saw the charge coming five minutes before it actually did. It was a very standard move of the Interceptor fist, namely, it was a charge that deliberately left the user defenseless, or at least looked like it did. The whole point of it was provoking the opponent into doing something stupid.

The doppelganger tried to punch Sasuke in the face, but he sidestepped the attack. Absent mindedly, the Uchiha noted that his doppelganger recovered commendably fast from getting a knee to the solar plexus. Then again, he had lessened his own momentum greatly by planting his feet.

"Maa, Sasuke, you should calm down so we can straighten this out." That lazy, bored tone… It was picture perfect for Kakashi's. Seriously, that one was freaking perfect.

Kakashi had appeared right between them as the doppelganger prepared to continue the fight. Only when he dropped it did Sasuke notice he had been smiling. He raised one eyebrow at Kakashi. "The other henge suck." Sasuke noted, crossing his arms and looking at Kakashi. "Yours is perfect, thought."

"That's 'cause I'm not transformed, other-Sasuke-kun!" Kakashi noted, a cheerful note in his voice.

"Hey, can we keep this one? At least he's polite!" The Naruto-lookalike said, his voice teasing as he folded his arms behind his head and grinned.

Sasuke sent him a look that showed his outright shock, before shaking his head. "Then why don't the other two look anything like Naruto and Sakura?" Sasuke said, crossing his arms and looking deadpan.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked. "They've looked like that for all the time I've known them." Kakashi admitted. "I think there's something weird going on here. State your name, rank, team and Registration ID."

"Why would I give a fake sensei any identification?" Sasuke asked. Wait… It could all be some trick by Kakashi to train them. Certainly, someone would've had to drag him out of the cave he'd been in. But Kakashi wouldn't make it this ridiculously easy. He enjoyed watching them squirm, after all.

"Just humor me." Kakashi said, giving him an eye-smile.

Sasuke sighed. "Uchiha Sasuke, Genin of Team 7 under Hatake Kakashi, ID 063793." He said.

"That's not my ID." Fake-Sasuke informed them, quickly.

"Of course not, it's mine." The real Sasuke said, raising an eyebrow.

Kakashi rubbed his chin. "What's your favorite food?"

"Tomatoes." Sasuke informed.

"True." The other one said, narrowing his eyes.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Blue."

"Also true."

Sasuke glared at his doppelganger for a few seconds before turning back to Kakashi, who leaned back and looked up at the sky, seemingly at a loss of what to do. "What the hell are you asking me questions for!?"

"Well, that one over there is the real Sasuke. I don't know who you are, but you don't act like Sasuke. You may look like him, but looks can be deceiving."

Sasuke blinked. "Why did you just use a genjutsu on me!?"

"And then your Sharingan is real too." Kakashi said. "Though the real Sasuke hasn't unlocked his Sharingan yet, yours is fully active… though it's still not fully matured…"

Sasuke glared at Kakashi, his glare enhanced by the Sharingan.

"I still say we keep this one. I already like him more than the one with the stick up his ass." The blond one spoke.

"Seriously, that is NOTHING like the Naruto I know." Sasuke said, exasperated.

Kakashi raised one eyebrow. "Oh, really?" He asked.

"Yes, really." Sasuke said, deadpan.

"Well, I've got to capture you now for questioning, no hard feelings. We'll leave you tied to some tree. ANBU will come later to pick you up, okay?" Kakashi said, smiling widely under his mask, like he was just saying a joke.

"That's assuming you can beat me in a fight." Sasuke said. "Imposters." He added, falling to a fighting stance.

"I'm quite confident on my ability to beat you, actually." Kakashi said, smiling. "Though I'm willing to let those two fight you instead." He gestured to fake-Naruto, who stretched to get rid of the kinks on his arms and upper body and fell into a…

…

…

He fell into an utter mockery of Naruto's stance. It was still full of holes, but whereas Naruto was always completely aware of every single one of them, this one seemed to think he was actually covered, from his cocky smirk. "Finally! I didn't get to do anything with those two guys, now I finally get to fight!"

"Dobe, you won't even scratch him." Fake-Sasuke said. "He's all mine."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Then the blond one rushed at him, throwing a whole bunch of ridiculously predictable and slow attacks that Sasuke had no trouble dodging entirely, with minimal movements. Then again, he WAS actually using his Sharingan, so it was to be expected that attacks would be lower than normal but…

This was utterly pathetic. Naruto's attacks were very hard to predict using the Sharingan, as he was usually a whirlwind of movement. This one was slow, predictable even without the Sharingan and just weak.

Sasuke swatted away the blond's clumsy punches (he hadn't even tried to kick once!) and when the effortless parry left him wide open, he countered with a simple straight to the face that knocked him on his ass. No wonder, since his balance was shit from not standing properly.

His expression of shock at how ridiculously easy it'd been to defeat this lookalike must've been quite angering, because the blond on the ground flushed red with embarrassment and rage. "Kage Bunshin!" He yelled, crossing his hands in front of himself. At once, there were at least twenty clones summoned.

Sasuke swore under his breath, as they all swarmed him. He jumped and saw two of them collide onto each other, unfortunately not managing to hit each other hard enough to dispel. No mater, he swung his leg and smashed it against a clone who'd jumped off another's back to get to him, dispelling that one instantly.

Another clone jumped at his back and Sasuke countered with an elbow to the face.

Yet another came, this time from his front. Sasuke raised his other leg to meet it foot-first, and when the clone crashed, face-first, onto the sole of his sandal, he applied force just before it dispelled, allowing him to backflip further up and away. While doing his flip, he noticed the tree behind him and decided sticking to it was his best bet.

Once he had landed against it, he quickly went through the handsigns of his most practiced technique. "Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu!" He yelled, before exhaling and feeding chakra onto a giant ball of fire that consumed most of the clones.

Two of them had managed to throw the original away before the fireball consumed him. "Kage Bunshin!" The original yelled again, this time making a dozen clones.

Sasuke groaned in annoyance before taking out two kunai on each hand. Each of them was connected by an almost invisible, yet razor sharp metallic wire, to the other one on each hand. He let the kunai sail in between six clones each.

"Hah! You can't aim for cra-"

The clones' taunt was cut off as the wire cut right through them and killed them all in one shot. Sasuke hated to waste the special wired kunai he carried around (wiring them was a total bitch, but they'd proven so useful he had taken to carry multiple pairs of prepared kunai), but it was clear from the blond's shock that he hadn't expected that.

"What the hell!? He missed! How did he take out my clones?" The fake-Naruto yelled.

Sasuke grunted as he jumped off the tree and glared at both of his opponents. That fight had taken more of his chakra and weaponry than he'd wanted it to, but the clone spam had merited it. The blond yelled and rushed at Sasuke…

… Only to get punched in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"Hn. I told you, dobe!" The Not-Sasuke yelled, as he adapted the Interceptor fist stance.

They weren't a very good team if they hadn't even tried to work together.

Sasuke grunted when they engaged in melee. In contrast to Naruto, whom he'd easily beaten with one punch, Sasuke The Clone was a much more difficult opponent. There was absolutely no doubt that whoever it was had a mastery of the Interceptor Fist that went perhaps beyond even his own. However, Sasuke knew that it was bloody useless without the Sharingan's cognitive abilities.

While they both used the interceptor fist, they were at an even ground, although Sasuke should've been winning due to the sharingan being active, his opponent was plainly more skilled, if a bit weaker.

The tables changed, however, when Sasuke stopped using the Interceptor Fist. His opponent knew everyone of his moves inside out, so there was no point in using that style. He fell onto what he recalled from getting the crap beaten out of him by Naruto multiple times. Fake-Sasuke reacted to the abrupt shift surprisingly well, managing to actually keep up for a while before falling to the defensive once the attacks were starting to overwhelm his ability to block them.

Once he couldn't predict them, he was simply outmatched.

The other Sasuke leaped back and started to go through handsigns. Sasuke knew that jutsu by heart, but momentary fatigue prevented him from rushing in to stop his doppelganger before he could unleash it. "Katon: Housenka No Jutsu!" Not-Sasuke yelled, spitting several fireballs as he did.

Sasuke swore under his breath before throwing himself into a roll forward that caught the Uchiha by surprise. As the fireballs had been aimed at his chest, they all missed him when he went down. However, when he went for a lethal attack by taking out a Kunai and stabbing forward with it, his hand was held back by Kakashi.

"I can't let you do that, you know." Kakashi said, absent mindedly, as he applied pressure and forced Sasuke to kneel down or suffer extreme pain on his arm.

Not-Sasuke took the opportunity to retreat after getting a shock from nearly being stabbed through the chest, as the tip of the kunai had stopped uncomfortably close to his heart right then.

"Get your hand off me before something bad happens to you." Sasuke warned, his tone almost a wild growl.

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow. "Now I'm curious." He informed. "What, pray tell, would be the bad thing that could happen to me?" Asked the silver haired man, looking down on the boy he held tightly onto.

There was the sound of rustling leaves and then there was the swoosh of something cutting through the wind. Sasuke grinned when Kakashi's visible eye widened impossibly and he leaped back as if by magic.

The spot he'd been in was covered with a bright silvery flash that cut diagonally in such a way that all Sasuke felt was the displaced air, as the sun glinted off a metallic surface. There was the sound of something very heavy striking the ground and a cloud of dust rose into the air. "Geez, Sakura, why are you always late in these team fights?" Sasuke asked.

Holding onto the massive axe stuck onto the ground was a form very much familiar, as a curtain of pink hair covered the wielder's face from Sasuke's direct sight. With a mighty heave, the pinkette pulled the giant axe back and threw her head back, getting her hair out of the way as she did so. "I'm fashionably late!" She informed him, grinning as she did so. "'Sides, I saved your bacon, you could at least be a little thankful."

Sasuke snorted. "I'll be thankful when we're out of this mess…"

"Okay. I did not expect that." Kakashi admitted, looking outright confused. "There's another Sakura too?"

"T-Two of Sakura-chan!?" the blond one yelled, with a bright blush on his face.

"Is that supposed to be Naruto?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Sasuke replied.

"… This is hilarious." Sakura admitted, giggling slightly.

"Sakura, we're stuck on god knows where with three obviously hostile ninja, one of whom is a jounin whom we couldn't even take out with the element of surprise. There's nothing funny about this." Sasuke said, deadpan.

"I'm trying to make light of our situation, Sasuke. Someone has to." Sakura said, shrugging.

"Eh, we'll get through this." Sasuke said. "As soon as I figure out how."

"Your chat is very interesting and enlightening, and I'm sorry to interrupt, but this is starting to get a bit weird…" Kakashi started, before he abruptly stopped.

From his face, he must have noticed their stares, Sasuke surmised.

"S-Sensei… Why is my clone so tiny!?" The fake Naruto called out, indignantly.

Sasuke snorted.

There were four sounds of steel cutting through wood and Kakashi suddenly turned into four pieces of a sliced log, before poofing back into being a few feet away from where he'd been. The smoke cloud surrounding the log gave way to reveal a very small blond boy with whisker marks on his cheeks and blue eyes.

On his hands were two swords, each as long and wide as his arms, which wasn't really all that much, given he was the shortest on the clearing by far, one of a shiny ebony color and the other of a dull, pale white. Neither had seen polish in very long, that much was apparent. The little boy then turned to glare at the only other blond.

Sakura smiled slightly. "If I were you, I'd run now." She said, looking at Naruto. "He doesn't seem to like you very much."

Not-Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, Other Sakura-chan?" He asked, with a smile that Sakura found kind of endearing, really. "He's tiny! What could he d- ACK!" He was quickly cut off by the feel of Naruto's own short, but considerably powerful leg, hitting him in the abdomen and sending him flying off.

"Naruto! You don't need to attack them!" Sasuke scolded. "We were handling it just fine." He added, glaring at the blond.

The smaller blond merely ignored him and simply rushed forward.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu (Mass Shadow Clone)!" cried the larger blond.

Then there was a veritable sea of orange and yellow.

This gave the smaller Naruto pause. He spun both swords until they pointed to the ground and stabbed them against the grass. The smaller blond's hands met in a cross shape. "Kage Bunshin." He whispered, as only two clones appeared beside him, one on each side.

While the larger clones took a few moments to coordinate a charge, the smaller ones almost instantly sprung to action, both tossing several Kunai and Shuriken forward almost lazily while the original went through handsigns again.

"Reppusho." The original whispered another name, before bringing both of his palms forward.

The wind rippled and the air distorted. The kunai and shuriken that were but a few feet in front of him quickly shot forward, going straight through the horde of clones, cutting a swat through them with no problem.

Each one of the smaller Kage Bunshin grabbed one of the swords stuck on the ground and held them with both hands (having small hands helped do this despite the small handle), before charging forward to meet the still charging, if thinned, horde.

It was a slaughter, the deafening popping sound being the only thing that interrupted the clones' screams and flashes of black and white occasionally contrasting with the orange everywhere until only the original fake-Naruto was left alone with the two killing machines in front of him. The clones both tossed the swords into the air and dispelled. The fake seemed to sigh in relief until he felt something incredibly tough hit his chest and felt a noticeable sting on his neck, along with the feel of coldness that only steel carried.

Naruto was straddling him, one knee pressing down on his chest and keeping him pinned while his swords were in a scissor shape close to his neck.

The fake gulped, his expression of clear fear and shock.

"That's enough!" Sasuke yelled, this time with a hint of anger to his voice. "We don't know what's going on, Naruto! It's better if we don't kill anyone until we figure out what's happening!"

The blond little boy pressed the swords harder against his doppelganger without breaking skin for an instant before he leaped back. With another leap, he was next to Sasuke, holding both swords at the ready and glaring at the Kakashi doppelganger.

"Sheesh! What's wrong with you? You're usually much more reserved than this…" Sakura muttered, before sighing and deciding to let the matter drop when Naruto simply looked at her as if there was nothing different to how their days usually went.

"I agree with the fake Sasuke. It might be best if we sat down to talk. I could take all three of you, but I'm with a client here and I really don't want to lose one of my genin here." The one-eyed jounin spoke.

Sasuke blinked. The henge was so good that Sasuke had mentally been referring to him as Kakashi throughout the entire encounter and only now had noticed that he'd been doing so. "Eh. Kakashi-sensei always said that if we banded together we would probably beat him or very seriously injuring him. Even if you're just as skilled as he is or have a sharingan… you've got dead weight with you and we've got a trump card." He said, placing a hand atop Naruto's head.

Kakashi blinked. "Okay, we need to talk. I need to know what the hell is going on here."

* * *

If you all have your concerns, you're free to voice them over a review or a PM. I'll be delighted to reply to them. I know that more than one of you will have concerns regarding just what the hell is going on, and if you can't truly wait until the characters realize it themselves (it should be pretty easy to guess, really), I will freely spoil it for you.

If you truly feel I jumped the shark with this... I do really apologize for ruining your enjoyment. But I have reasons for doing what I do. There's a certain trope that must be dealt with.

You know, I actually debated having Sakura pull a Takei and say "You are made of stupid." When Sasuke tried the Wind/Fire combo in a freaking cave. Certainly an idiot. Then again, he's twelve, he's bound to do stupid things, since he doesn't have a powerful sense of self preservation and he's still too young to know when you have to stick to smaller explosions.

The idea of Sakura with a massive axe? It actually came from her being depicted with large weapons in official art. I just thought that the idea of the Girly Girl that is Sakura wielding an axe larger than she is would be funny. Plus, I don't want her to be a Tsunade clone. Similar, inspired by her, maybe, but cloning another character is not in my plans here!

It seems that I might need to explain one of the references I used on the last chapter. The 'dood ur so retarded' thing comes from My Immortal, the most famous Harry Potter badfic out there. If you don't think it's funny, well, it just means I suck as a humorist, which is entirely plausible and is in fact true, if you got it and found it funny, then I will give you an ethereal cookie.

Something that some people wonder is why I still keep to simply straddling the line... well, in truth, it's because it simply gives me more freedom to work with. If I don't have anything stablished as hard fact, but rather as bendable, I can make things change at a moment's notice. Also, they're twelve. While Ninja mature psychologically a tad earlier than other children and they have those idiotic notions we had in our childhoods beaten out of them, they still don't get hormones until they're older than that, so they're not really 'defined' until they 'discover' their identity on their own.

Of course, _I_ know which side they bat for, if they bat for any sides at all, or if they bat for both. FYI, bisexuality is not uncommon in the ninja forces at all...

If you guys want the story as to why Team 7 is no longer allowed to take a certain kind of D Rank missions, you'll have to convince me that you want it really, really hard.

And no, I'm not gonna tell y'all what Naruto was doing until it becomes relevant to do so, :3

If you're wondering about the delay, I recently obtained a certain thing called 'Cosplay Fetish Academy' and have been trying to unlock the second Harem ending to no avail. Why is it that you must escape me so, Akari?


	11. What Was

"How?" Sasuke turned to stare at… himself. That would get complicated. For the sake of ease of reference, he decided to refer to his clone, and his teammates' other selves, by their surnames. At the very least, mentally.

"How what?" Sasuke asked.

Uchiha grunted. "How did you become so strong?"

That question did not cause any surprise in the slightly bigger Sasuke. No, in fact, he'd actually been sort of expecting it. He hadn't sparred with his counterpart, heck, they'd barely had time to get acquainted so far, and all they'd managed to discern from their earlier chat with Kakashi was that somehow, they'd ended up in an alternate universe or in the single most elaborate and ridiculous genjutsu of all time.

As farfetched as it sounded, Sasuke was wishing it was a genjutsu, since he had absolutely no idea how the hell this would end otherwise. He wanted to go back to his own world. Not because he didn't want to worry his parent, but because the intent stare that his counterpart was throwing him was starting to become irritating.

"How do you think? I trained." Sasuke replied.

Uchiha's eyes narrowed, and he looked as if he were trying to set fire to Sasuke with his eyes. But of course, the thought of being able to set someone on fire with your eyes is just silly. "I train. Hard. Every day." Explained the broodier one, taking a few steps forward. They weren't particularly secluded, but they were away from the others (who were all around a campfire discussing the current mission). "Why are you much stronger than me?"

"I don't know." Sasuke said, shrugging. "You don't seem like the kind of guy to accept help, so that may be it. If you have a whole clan behind you and you don't use it, you're just dumb."

Uchiha's eyes widened for an instant before they narrowed into a glare once again. "What..?" He whispered. "Your clan… the Uchiha clan… Is…"

"What about my clan? It's the same here as it was back at my world, isn't it?" Asked Sasuke, rolling his eyes.

"Everyone is dead." Said Uchiha with an air of grimness and a very noticeable undercurrent of hate behind it.

"… The fuck did you just say?" Sasuke asked, shaken out of his reverie.

"Everyone is dead." Uchiha repeated. "Itachi snapped one night and just killed everyone. He forced me to relive their deaths." This actually shocked Sasuke into silence. After all, what do you answer to that? 'I'm sorry for your loss'? That… sounds condescending and pitying. And Sasuke hated being pitied for pretty much any reason, so he had no doubt about his counterpart hating it too. "He said he did it to test his capacity."

"Itachi… Did that?" Sasuke asked, taking a step back, his eyes wide with horror at the thought. Then, a flash of memory hit him like a truck. "That must have been what was breaking him down back then…" He whispered. Then he put both hands on his counterpart's shoulders.

"What are you blathering about?" Asked Uchiha, coldly, his tone snappish. It seemed that he did not like talking about his past and particularly that night, though Sasuke couldn't really blame him.

"In my world, Itachi is going to succeed the Hokage when he retires." Said Sasuke. "He told me that the Hokage announced it so early in his career because he wanted to ease tensions between the Uchiha clan and the village."

"Impossible. Itachi is insane and all he wants is to be the strongest! He doesn't care about anyone other than himself." Explained the rather incensed Last Uchiha, grabbing at his other self's shirt and failing to lift him from his collar only because Sasuke held his hands down.

"Itachi wouldn't do something like that." Sasuke said, noticing that his counterpart was actually physically stronger than he was. "Something must have happened that made him snap like that. The tensions between the village and the clan were very high at the time, and Itachi was pretty much the most significant link between us and the village…"

Uchiha didn't seem impressed, however, and just growled. "What does it matter why he did it!? He killed everyone! All of them! Even mother and father! And he forced me to watch it over and over again!" The Last Uchiha was shaking his counterpart with every word, his tone low but with a deep seated burning hatred that bordered on madness running behind it that made it seem all the more poignant because of it. "And I will find and kill him to have my revenge."

Sasuke said nothing as his other self let go of his shirt, merely smoothing the wrinkles he'd just created, as the other took a deep breath. "I don't know what could have happened that made Itachi go crazy like that. But that doesn't sound like Nii-san."

Uchiha's fist was intercepted before it could reach his other self's face and parried so that it veered off to the side of his cheek. "Don't you dare call him that."

"I understand." Sasuke said. "… But think about it. There must be something going on that you don't know. I can't imagine him doing something like this."

"I don't care why or what happened." Uchiha once again disregarded his other self words, growling at the thought. "What he did was unforgivable… and I will have my revenge."

"I can't say anything." Sasuke spoke, sighing.

"Then you got to be as strong as you are because you had our clan to train you." Stated Uchiha, eyes narrowed. "You're useless to me, then. The others are only trying to hold me back, to stop me from getting strong enough to face him alone."

Sasuke glared at his other self and, with a few swift movements, put him in submission hold with his chin against the ground and his right arm close to being pulled out of its socket. Uchiha had almost gotten his tongue cut off from the jarring and sudden impact. "I learned this from Kakashi-sensei." Explained Sasuke. "I learned how to break out of it from Naruto." He added. "And I taught Sakura how to do it, too."

Uchiha growled and tried to struggle, but it was useless, as the hold was preventing him from doing more than wiggling in place like a worm in a slippery surface. "Let me go!"

"You better learn this lesson, 'cause I won't have my counterpart being such an idiot." Sasuke said. "There are people out there that you won't ever be able to beat one on one. Itachi is one of them. We might be good, but we're not THAT good."

"I'm the best! If Konoha weren't holding me back…" Uchiha let out, growling as he tried to defend his honor from where his counterpart seemed hell bent on stomping all over it. "I would be so much stronger than you! You're weak, compared to me!"

"Oh, yeah? Who's on the floor, me or you? Us, but that's beside the point." Sasuke said, pulling a little more harshly on Sasuke's arm and stopping him from speaking. The fact that he bit on the grass and had to spit it afterwards amused the one on top. "And why would I be weaker than you?"

"Your connections with people will just weight you down, hold you back and slow you down!" Uchiha snarled, trying to throw Sasuke off his back. "Itachi got so strong because he had nobody holding him back!"

"You're wrong, idiot." Sasuke said, using the hand that he had forcing Uchiha's head down to lift him from his hair. "You think that Itachi magically got to be as strong as he is? He got strong because he accepted help. He grew more in the two years as an ANBU than he did in all his time as a sensei-less chunin! He got to be that good because he trained and learned with his comrades and friends. Just as I'm stronger than you because I have someone to train with!"

After letting him drop, Uchiha stopped struggling. Sasuke stood up and glared at the last loyal Uchiha of this other Konoha, cutting off the glare to turn around and had back, completely and utterly ignoring the deadly glare thrown his way. "When you get that… maybe you'll actually even be a challenge."

"Itachi told me himself." Uchiha began, stopping Sasuke cold. "He said that I had to throw all my friends away… that I had to live an unsightly life."

Sasuke looked at him over his shoulder. "And you went ahead and did exactly what a psychotic mass murderer who just finished slaughtering his own family and tortured you with those images told you to do? I know there are dumb people out there, but you take the cake, idiot."

Uchiha found himself incapable of providing an adequate answer.

"Well, I can't say that I disagree with his words. Or his methods, really." A rather calm and lazy drawl interrupted Uchiha's reverie. "But you'll be able to think that over better with your stomach full, so come over here and eat."

Uchiha blinked. All the time he'd spent just sitting on the grass had been a blur. Then he shook his head and ignored the hand that Kakashi offered him, walking to the circle set around a camp fire which had a cast iron pot over it, where the smaller Naruto was casually stirring the contents with what looked to be practiced ease.

"Wow, you know how to cook?" Asked the taller Uzumaki.

"You don't?" Asked Sakura, raising an eyebrow. Seeing his nod, she sighed. "If you're like him, then you're also an orphan. You mean to tell me that you live alone and never learned how to cook?"

"It's not like anyone would teach me…" Uzumaki replied, his tone nowhere near as exuberant as usual.

Sakura scowled, then turned to glare at Kakashi.

"I thought he already knew how. He hasn't died from starvation yet." Informed the silver haired jounin.

"Then, seriously, how do you survive on just ramen, Naruto?" asked Haruno, looking at her teammate as if he was an interesting experiment. "You should be wider than you're tall if all you eat is instant ramen…"

"Or at least super broke." Tazuna added.

"I don't know." Uzumaki said, shrugging. "I guess I'm just that cool!"

Naruto the younger looked at him intently. Even Sasuke seemed to be curious about that one, as he turned to address his own Naruto, who merely placed a hand against his stomach. Sasuke barely gave away his understanding and merely nodded in Naruto's direction.

"Anyway, you really should learn how to cook, and if your teammates won't do it, then I'll do it myself!" Sakura stated, standing up and crossing her arms and smirking at him.

"You will, Other Sakura-chan!?" Uzumaki yelled because of his surprise and elation at the mere thought of that. Sakura merely nodded, smiling at his enthusiasm. "That's awesome!" he said, pumping his fist.

Haruno looked perplexed. "You want to spend time with him?" She asked, looking her other self in the face and looking for the telltale signs of sarcasm in her face or tone. There were none. "But he's insufferable. He's nothing like Sasuke-kun!"

"He's your teammate." Sakura said, blinking. "I mean, I know I didn't pay that much attention to Naruto back at the academy, but he's really easy to ignore. No offense." She said, turning around to see that Naruto hadn't even registered her comment, too busy using one hand to stir whatever it was that smelled so good and the other to hold up the cookbook he was reading from. "But he's your teammate now, you should at least try to be friends."

"Well, your Naruto is nothing like mine." Haruno said, crossing her hands over her nonexistent chest. "He's always loud and moving and he can't stay still. He's got terrible grades and sucks as a ninja!" she had started to yell by the end

Tazuna the bridge builder raised one eyebrow. "Woah, that's super harsh."

Sakura snorted. "And I wouldn't be surprised if he can take you out with a few hits at the most." She said, smirking at her somewhat smaller self. "And he's not the one screaming right now, is he?"

Indeed, Uzumaki's mood had been thrown to the mud right then, as he was now kinda depressed from having been put down so harshly by his crush. Sasuke actually felt sort of bad watching it. It was funny, as they were both extremes. One was too stoic for his own good and the other was too expressive for his own good. It kinda made him smile and chuckle internally.

Haruno had the decency to blush in embarrassment, at the very least. "He's usually more annoying than this, and he's totally useless!"

"He wasn't the one that fainted before the fight even began." Sakura pointed out with a sly smile.

"But he froze when the Demon Brothers attacked." Haruno countered.

"Pinkie here did jump in front of me." Tazuna said, his voice having the slightest trace of respect in it.

"All he did was get hurt because he was scared." The angered pinkette finished.

"And you let him get hurt?" Sasuke said, his tone surprisingly even and calm. Sakura gulped. Leaving Naruto to fend off multiple opponents alone was a sore spot for Sasuke. The last time it'd happened, they had almost lost him. "You're worse than trash."

"Now, now, she reacted as best she could." Kakashi said, stepping into the circle and sitting against the mountain of backpacks, his hands resting behind the back of his head. "She couldn't have known he would freeze."

"And where were you?" Sasuke asked, his tone dangerously low. Kakashi, the one in his own world, had made a terrible mistake because he'd been trying to get an idea of their capabilities. The silver haired man had confessed and apologized for leaving them to fend for themselves against clearly superior opponents, but that didn't make Sasuke forgive him for it.

"Geez, chill, all they did was scratch me." Uzumaki said, rolling his eyes. "What are you so defensive about?"

Sasuke sighed. "Something like that happened to us, too." He began, looking at the fire for a few seconds, trying to get focused. "We weren't properly prepared and we were thrown off our game when we thought Kakashi was killed by a fire jutsu. " Then he looked at Naruto, who merely shook his head without removing his eyes from his book. "It didn't end well."

Sakura had seen Naruto shake his head and decided not to further elaborate on how exactly the mission had ended, despite the Alternate Team 7 and Tazuna probing them for the information.

After the silence had settled, the pot was taken off the fire and then they served it. There was a problem, however, when it turned out that Uzumaki had nothing to put his food on, as he hadn't thought about the possibility of eating anything other than the cup ramen he'd packed (which he'd been barred from eating that night, Kakashi had said that a good meal is good for team bonding).

Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed. "You're more similar than I thought." He said. He then proceeded to turn to where Kakashi was sitting against their backpacks. "In mine there's a second bowl." He said. Seeing how everyone except his own team looked at him oddly he cleared his throat. "Naruto tends to forget his, so I usually carry two."

"That's convenient." Haruno noted. "To be expected from Sasuke-kun!" She muttered, blushing slightly. It made Sasuke want to punch a kitten from sheer disgust.

After everyone had a bowl where the soup could be served, they turned to seat around the campfire. They were in the land of fire, so even the nights were pleasant, usually, but there was still no reason to deviate from common practice. It was unlikely they'd get attacked twice in the same day. After all, Gato wouldn't know that the Demon Brothers had failed until a reasonable time had passed.

Kakashi was certain, however, that this lull wouldn't last too much, so he was intending to make the best of it.

Uzumaki raised one eyebrow and looked none too pleased at the seat arrangement, as he'd wanted to sit next to Sakura, either of them, but he still sat down and began to eat, occasionally stealing glances at where both kunoichi were sitting. Then his gaze actually went to where Kakashi and Uchiha were seated, and how his Sasuke seemed to be completely lost in thought.

Kakashi seemed to be reading a book while he ate, the book he used to conceal his face so that nobody would see him lower his mask. That one was actually clever, though it made him want to see what Kakashi wanted to hide so much.

Finally, Uzumaki's eyes trailed to where his counterpart and Sasuke were sitting. He found himself questioning his other self. After all, he was sitting with Sasuke! Of his own free will! And he even seemed to like it! Granted, this Sasuke didn't seem to have the stick shoved so far up his ass he tasted it, but he was still Sasuke!

Then it hit him. Maybe his other self… Maybe he liked Sasuke more than a friend should! Suddenly, Naruto slapped himself. That would be just silly. Maybe he was just getting drunk off the old geezer's smell. Or maybe the old man had changed his water with Sake. 'Cause he'd just thought something impossible.

No way could his counterpart like Sasuke. No. Flippin'. Way.

Just at that moment, Naruto seemed to notice that his counterpart was staring at him, and as such, he lifted his gaze from where it had intently been on the spoon heading to his mouth. However, due not in small part to the distraction provided by the moment, Naruto seemed to actually burn his tongue by forgetting to blow on the ridiculously hot soup cooked over an open fire.

He didn't flinch, didn't make a noise and didn't seem all that affected. Heck, the wince he made had been so easy to miss that Naruto was certain he'd imagined it, for a moment.

"Pay attention to what you're doing." Grumbled the nicer Sasuke, moving his right hand until it was in front of the other Naruto and using his pointer finger to poke his forehead. The little Naruto seemed the slightest bit flustered at that moment.

Kakashi's one visible eye widened imperceptibly and the other Sasuke flinched.

"We've got to draw up a schedule for tonight. And I'm not staying up." Kakashi suddenly informed, breaking Uzumaki out of his train of thought and making him completely forget what he was thinking.

"I'll go first." Sasuke volunteered. "Sakura will go second and Naruto will go last." He added. "We'll be doing two hour shifts. We need someone for third guard. Usually, sensei fills that spot."

Kakashi raised one eyebrow. His other self had to go crazy. He was more fond of the first shift. Then again, maybe he'd just allowed Sasuke to have it. "I can't force you guys, but I still think that you should let my team handle this."

Sasuke looked like he wanted to laugh.

Sakura raised one eyebrow. "Technically, we ARE your team." She pointed out. However, she shook her head and then turned to look at her counterpart. "Have you actually trained them on this?"

Kakashi sheepishly offered her an eye-smile. "I thought it'd be better to show rather than tell."

Sakura sighed and shook her head.

"Hey! I can stay awake if I need to!" Haruno said, though her conviction was less than perfect about it.

"You could, yeah, but then you'd be feeling pretty horrible. I know it was a pain in the ass to get used to this schedule." Sakura replied. "Trust me on this one, it takes a while until you don't feel like murdering your teacher the next day."

Haruno sighed. She couldn't argue that, since she hadn't ever tried something similar before and Kakashi hadn't trained them on this at all. The lessons in the academy only covered how to stay awake, not how to deal with being tired afterwards.

"Okay then… Let's do one hour shifts." Kakashi said, smiling at his team and the team of his counterpart. "It shouldn't have too adverse an effect, and it's good training." He said, shrugging at Sasuke and Sakura's incredulous gazes.

"Yeah, Kakashi is the exact same in both worlds." Sasuke said, sighing. Then he got a contemplative expression on his face. "Did you take your team to a strip club yet? Sensei promised he'd take us to one…" He said.

"He did?" Kakashi asked, his eyebrow shooting into his hairline.

"Seriously?" Tazuna asked, looking at the silver haired teacher like he'd grown a second head.

"Are you kidding me?" Haruno and an Uchiha who had been taken out of his funk for an instant asked.

"It's no joke." Sakura said, groaning. "He said that we had to get used to seeing those sorts of things or it could work against us, down the line. If we could get easily flustered by nudity, we'd be easily defeated." She reasoned. "It's solid reasoning, but I think he just wants to go to a strip club and make us pay."

"Sounds like something I would do." Kakashi admitted, shamelessly. "Though I'd probably wait until I have a reason to celebrate."

"He said he would take us when we were promoted in the coming chunin exams." Sakura said.

Kakashi nodded. "If you did, I'd probably throw you guys a party. You'd be the first rookie team to graduate all their members in their first chunin exam. But that's a pretty big if."

"We're pretty much confirmed." Sasuke said, shrugging. "Sensei is training us as ringers, not participants."

"That good, huh?" Kakashi said, rubbing his masked chin.

"Uh, Sensei, what's a ringer?" Asked Haruno, turning to Kakashi.

"It's a team that's well above the usual skill level in the chunin exams. Some teams are held back so that they can make a more impressive show. The International Chunin Exams are more for show than they are to actually promote the genin, so when the villages host the exams in their own soil, where they can get away with this sort of thing, they put unusually strong teams in the running to make an impression." Explained the silver haired jounin.

"What? The chunin exams are for show?" Asked Haruno, blinking.

"Most chunin are promoted for field work, not for their display in the chunin exams. Elite Jounin, like myself, can promote people on the spot, though any promotions I make are temporary unless a member of the Elder Council, the Sannin or the Hokage make it permanent."

The genin, all of them except Naruto, let out an odd Oh of understanding.

"Man, being a jounin is really cool, if you can promote whoever you want…" Uzumaki remarked.

"Normal jounin can't promote anyone, Naruto. There are roughly a dozen or so Elite Jounin in Konoha, Naruto, and most of those are ANBU. One of the requirements is having a Threat Ranking of A or superior, and they only get more complicated from there."

"Threat Ranking?" Sasuke asked.

"This is actually super enlightening." Tazuna remarked.

"I'm glad I'm at least proving entertaining." Kakashi remarked, offering the bridge builder an eye-smile. "Yes. Ninja are ranked based on their strength outside of their hierarchical rank." He explained. "From E, the lowest rank, all the way to the highest, S. There's technically an SS rank, too, but only one Shinobi was ever given that rank."

"Really? Who?" Asked Uzumaki, excitedly.

"The Yondaime Hokage." Kakashi said, smiling under his mask. "After he single-handedly slaughtered an entire army without a scratch, he was given an SS rank and an order to flee on sight."

"Woah! That's really cool!" Remarked the taller blond boy. "Then I will prove I'm the best Hokage by attaining an even higher rank than the Yondaime! I will be the first SSS shinobi, then!"

"Good luck with that." Kakashi might have been somewhat sarcastic with that statement, but Sasuke doubted he didn't think Naruto could at least manage an S rank. Heck, he was pretty much cursed to be absurdly strong by default, due to the Bijuu he held within himself.

That made Sasuke think. Naruto seemed pretty certain that his counterpart had the Kyuubi, too, but he seemed to be nothing like what Sasuke would expect from someone raised to be a weapon. Perhaps he'd avoided that fate entirely. But it still made Sasuke curious to know how exactly this Naruto had been raised.

His own was feared in his own village and avoided like the plague. Heck, people were afraid to go into the same training ground he used. He doubted that this one inspired the same feeling that Sasuke's own Naruto did. After all, while Naruto could be irritating at times, he was easy to ignore.

This one seemed far louder and… weaker. It seemed as if you could actually get to him, unlike the other one, who seemed to be outright inhuman at times, more like a doll than anything else. This one was actually human.

Then again, even Naruto had moments of vulnerability. Regardless of appearances, neither of them seemed to be particularly afflicted by the opinions of those around them. He frowned.

"Anyway, let's draw up a schedule. I'm fine with any position you guys pick, but I'm still going to sleep for the night." Sasuke didn't feel like arguing. The jounin was for obvious reasons Team 7's biggest asset in combat, and given that they would likely be going into combat, keeping him perfectly well rested was only common sense. If only he wouldn't be a dick about it, it'd be perfect.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You" he said, pointing at the taller Naruto. "Will go first. Then me. Then the other me. Then you," he said, pointing at the thinner Sakura, "Then my Sakura, then my Naruto for the last two hours. Sound about right?"

"Why does he have to go through two hours?" Haruno asked. Apparently, seeing the smaller, frailer Naruto being put into those sorts of situations didn't sit right with her. Both Sakura and Sasuke allowed themselves a smile. "Sensei should pull his weight!" She added, glaring at Kakashi.

"Maa, maa, I'm supposed to be teaching you, Sakura. What would I teach you if I did everything for you?"

Haruno glared at Kakashi. "You're just saying that because you're a lazy-ass!"

"… No." Uchiha interrupted. "He's the strongest of us. If Gato sends out stronger shinobi, we'd need him at his full strength."

"Ah, Sasuke-kun, you talked!" Haruno said, completely forgetting about the entire argument. "I was getting worried that something had happened to you!"

Uchiha rolled his eyes, sighing in clear exasperation at the display from the pinkette.

"It works for me." Naruto said, shrugging. "Anyway! I'll protect you all, no worries!"

"This isn't very reassuring." Tazuna stated, his face showing clear apprehension. "I was more in line with the plan where the stronger brats were the ones keeping watch."

"Don't worry, Tazuna-san." Sasuke said, shrugging. "All the guard needs to do is wake up everyone else if something happens." He explained, looking at the others. "And occasionally killing animals coming for our food, too."

"Can't you just, I don't know, scare it away or something?" Haruno asked, looking at him as if he'd just murdered a cuddly rabbit.

"You kidding?" Sakura asked, raising one eyebrow. "Food always attracts animals, which when dead turn into, you guessed it, more food. It's just a way of having more varied food to eat rather than whatever rations we brought with us."

"Sounds like a sound idea." Kakashi said.

It didn't take long for everyone to bring out their beddings from their backpacks, spread them out and went to sleep. The night was awfully quiet, and the only light source around was the few remaining embers of the fire, which were already dying out. Finally, there was only the light streaming from the moon. Back when they'd been in the forest, before they'd stopped for the night, there would've been no light whatsoever due to the thick canopy, but the plains that dominated the vast expanse of land between Konoha, which was at the center of the Land Of Fire, and the Land Of Waves, which was a few hundred kilometers to the east of that, offered no such cover.

Uzumaki was already getting bored two minutes after everyone else had gone to sleep, and had started drawing on the floor with a Kunai, an activity impeded by the lack of light, but he was not one to be defeated by such pathetic adversity.

"Hey, Uzumaki-san." A low voice cut through the air of the night. Uzumaki yelped, before turning around and seeing that it was Sasuke, who raised his arms to indicate he came in peace.

"Ah, it's you. You surprised me." The blond said, shaking his head. "Anyway, shouldn't you go to sleep? I can do this, no problem!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It didn't look like you were paying a lot of attention, just now." The Uchiha spoke, but then he sighed. "Actually, I put you in first and right behind me because I wanted to be able to talk to you in private."

"Talk to me?" Uzumaki asked, raising an eyebrow. Sasuke nodded. "Okay, I guess, it's not like there's much else to do here." He said, his drawing on the ground of him and Sakura already forgotten and stepped on as they moved a bit away so as to not accidentally wake up everyone else. "What did you want to talk about?"

"A lot of things, actually." Sasuke stated, opening the conversation without any restraints or holds barred.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I want to know a few things, too." Uzumaki said, nodding at those words. "What's up with the mini-me? He seems so quiet and, well, weird…"

"He's lived a hard life." Explained Sasuke.

"I guessed. He's very strong, though. Well, it doesn't seem like it, but he did beat all my shadow clones with only two of his own. And those swords he wields are kinda cool, too. I should get some like those." He mused, absent mindedly.

"He's usually not that aggressive." Sasuke said, lost in thought himself. "In fact, it's weird that he actually went on the offensive, he's usually more prone to just waiting for his opponents to attack and countering their moves."

Uzumaki furrowed his brow and looked not unlike he'd just been told the sky is green. "Why would he just sit there and wait for his opponent to attack him? That sounds suicidal!"

"He's very good at it." Sasuke said, shrugging. "The entire Uchiha clan uses a similar idea, though the basic principle of the style differs in that while the Interceptor Fist uses a lot of counters too, we don't leave ourselves deliberately open to attack. The Sharingan has the ability to read attacks even before the opponent executes them from a series of non-verbal," Sasuke stopped seeing the face of confusion that his listener had. He almost facepalmed right then and there. "and that means that they're not spoken, cues. Whatever style Naruto uses has him leave deliberate holes in his defenses. The way I see it, it's all about goading the opponent into making a mistake."

The elder Naruto nodded at the properly sound logic behind both styles. "Teme was beating you when you were both fighting the same, though."

"He's better at it than me." Said Sasuke, absolutely no shame in admitting said fact. "But of course, that's to be expected. Most of my teachers always put an emphasis on having a solid and varied skills set, like with my elemental affinities."

"Affi-nee-tees?"

Sasuke sighed. "To put it the simplest way I can, it's basically what jutsu element you're better with, like for example, I'm better at lightning and fire than anything else. If I'm not mistaken, yours should be wind."

"Wind? I could shoot fireballs or lightning bolts and all I get is wind?" Uzumaki said, almost petulantly. "This sucks. What can I do? Blow people?" He didn't exactly know why that provoked a giggle out of Sasuke, and there was no way that he would get an explanation, either. After all, Sasuke drew some measure of comfort in knowing that at least there was a world where Naruto had some of his childhood innocence intact.

"Anyway, is there anything else you wanted to know about?" Sasuke asked, crossing his arms. "We've got some time until your hour is up… it's only been a few minutes."

Looking at the campsite to make sure everyone was still perfectly okay and asleep, Uzumaki let out a loud sigh. "How do you guys get along so well?" he asked, sitting down on a mostly flat rock.

"What do you mean?" Asked Sasuke, mildly confused.

"Come on, you had to have seen that we're not friends. The other you is a total prick and Sakura-chan is always thinking about him…"

Sasuke felt an overwhelming urge to pet Naruto, but decided not to act on it and repressed it as much as he could. After all, this wasn't his Naruto. Even so, he still felt a certain degree of responsibility. This one might be taller and older, but he was still ridiculously adorable when he was vulnerable like that. "Yeah, I saw." He said.

"Then, how did you fix it? Your Sakura-chan is just as smart and pretty as mine, but she's so strong and cool and nice..." he seemed like he would go on and on about the virtues of Sakura, particularly after having met one who seemed to be everything he saw in her without the bad parts. "She even promised to help me learn how to cook! My Sakura-chan would have just punched me if I said I couldn't cook!"

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "That's a bit excessive." Spoke the Uchiha, rubbing his chin. "Anyway, there's no real secret to it. It's not some switch that you can flip to make the team click."

"But still…" It didn't seem as if Uzumaki was willing to give up so easily.

"Well, all I can tell you is that you could try to tone yourself down when around Sakura. And kick the other me's ass. He really is a prick and a moron. Then again, he has his reasons for being a prick." Well, Sasuke assumed that they were legitimate reasons. After having had time to cool down, Sasuke had been more willing to entertain theories about why his other self was the way he was. "I think he's just scared of getting attached to people because he either fears he may disappoint them or that they will be taken away. Then again, he could really think that relationships would just hold him down, but I'm more willing to bet that it's a front so people don't question him."

"Why would he lie like that?" Asked Uzumaki, which caused Sasuke to smile.

"If he's anything like me, and I guess he should be seeing as we're the same person under different circumstances, he hates being pitied and he hates his own weaknesses. Don't tell anyone that last one, Sakura would never let me live it down if I ever admit I'm aware I'm not perfect." He said, his tone low and hushed, as if sharing secret information about a conspiracy only he was privy to.

It seemed to fully satisfy Naruto's curiosity for the moment, at the very least regarding that topic.

"But how did you get Sakura-chan to stop focusing on you so much?" He asked. "She said that she used to be like mine, so…"

"Well, you wouldn't be able to do that by yourself. The only reason I was able to break her out of the whole fangirl phase was because I'm, well, me." Sasuke said, the Uzumaki's mind making the connection that it wouldn't have made under a more thorough explanation. "Your best bet is convincing the other me to explain to her what she's doing wrong. She wouldn't really listen to Kakashi, much less to you. Then again, I'm speaking only from the short analysis I could give of your team dynamics."

After all, for all he knew Haruno could have been relying on Uzumaki as an emotional crutch because Uchiha himself ignored her. This Sakura seemed far more confident and secure than what his own had been, so there had to be at least some support. Maybe she'd remained friends with Ino instead of breaking off their friendship to pursue him.

There were a lot of factors that could have gone into shaping her slightly differently than Sakura in his world was, up to the point where he had taken matters into his own hands.

"If you're worried about her self esteem, which you seem to be, then just be there to cheer her up. Don't lie to her, though, don't paint her as something she really isn't. You don't need to lie about her potential, though, she has plenty of it. All she needs is to know that she can do better."

Once again, Sasuke found himself thinking of setting up a shinobi psychiatric clinic. He found himself providing counsel once again. Far as he knew, the psychology course was still too long to take as an aside while he went about his Shinobi career. He was still a pretty decent Shinobi shrink, though.

Maybe he could charge for his services?

"You're really different from the other you." Uzumaki noted, absent mindedly. "The other you would've just told me off if I'd asked for his help. Thank you. Really."

"It's no problem. Even if you're an alternate dimension counterpart, you're still my best friend." Sasuke noted, clapping him in the shoulder as he sat down next to where Naruto had lied down before. "And really, someone has to be there for you guys."

"He's alone too, isn't he?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Neither of you is alone. You've got me, right?"

"Yeah…"

There was a long, comfortable silence that was only broken by the sound of the wind brushing past their ears.

"What… what did you want to talk about, anyway?" Uzumaki asked, looking at the distance trying to find any movement. Sasuke seemed to take a full thirty seconds to full think about what he was about to say, so Naruto opened his mouth to ask again when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder that sent a chill running down his spine.

"Someone has to be there to help you. You've already got too much in your shoulders. Nobody should have to suffer for something they had no control over." Began the Uchiha.

"What… what are you talking about?" There was a hint of panic in Uzumaki's voice.

Sasuke's expression was fully serious and solemn.

"Naruto. I know."

* * *

To all those wondering about how long this took...

... I have to say, getting inspiration to write it was a total bitch since Kishimoto seems hell bent on making me hate the series.


	12. Not Quite A Fond Farewell

"I know."

Two words. Two words that managed to send a poor little boy into a panic. Two words that had managed to cause the Uzumaki's eyes to widen greatly as he scrambled to try and get himself back together, failing miserably at that. "W-What do you mean?" asked the blond.

Sasuke sighed, shaking his head. "What do you think I mean, the color of your underwear?" He asked, raising an eyebrow and looking as if he was talking about nothing more than the weather, from how unfazed he was by the topic of their discussion. "I don't know why either of you makes such a big deal out of this, really."

"Why it's such a big deal!?" the blond was clearly panicking at that point, grabbing his hair. "This damn thing has caused everyone in the village to hate me for all my life! It's the reason I can't have any friends! It makes everyone ignore me…" he continued, looking aside for a few seconds before directing his gaze back at Sasuke. "So why don't you hate me too?" He asked, clearly realizing that Sasuke was looking at him without a hint of hate in him.

"You're not it, Naruto. You're the warden, not the prisoner." He spoke, nodding to calm the blond's frayed nerves. "And I have no fear of it, either. The Yondaime was the greatest seal master ever born, after all." Explained the Uchiha heir, shrugging. "So all it is, to me, is a giant battery for you to use."

"It's still the thing that nearly destroyed the village, twelve years ago…" Uzumaki said, hugging his knees and looking down at the ground, clearly still uncomfortable.

"And that may be the reason why the adults can't let go of their hatred of it long enough to see you and not the fox." Sasuke said, shrugging. "Me? I don't have memories of that time. I was two years old at the time."

"But… the way jiji explained it to me, none of our generation should know… there's a law that says the adults can't talk about it." Uzumaki seemed to be entirely too uncomfortable with this topic and was trying to avoid it, but Sasuke knew that leaving it for later was not an option. "How did you learn?"

"You told me." Sasuke said, his tone flat and his face deadpan.

"Oh. Right." The blond replied, shaking his head.

"I'm not gonna tell you to tell the others, that's really up to you." Sasuke said, smiling at Naruto and failing to resist the urge to pet his head, standing up as he did so. "But what I am gonna tell you is that if they learn… it'd best come from your mouth. Wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea." Explained the Uchiha, looking at the Uzumaki as if he were talking to a child… which he was. Despite the headband making him a legal adult for all intents and purposes, Naruto, both of them, was still a child. "Go to sleep now, meditate on it, discuss it with your pillow."

The blond nodded, a bit dumbly. Sasuke wasn't certain if the hour had gone by already, but the boy had too much in his mind to really be anything other than a distraction for the Uchiha.

"… Now, like the team leader that I am, I need to start trying to figure out a way out of this mess." He began. Almost a full hour after he began his pondering, he came to the same conclusion he'd had every other time he came to one. He had absolutely no idea how the hell he was going to get his team out of this mess.

And it was starting to drive him nuts despite the fact that he'd only been trying to figure this out in one hour. His best bet would be to try to find the same cave they'd found before coming here and investigating it. There was a chance that they'd find something that would help them get back to their own world, and that was the number one priority.

Then again, Naruto seemed to know more things than what he told them, and if he could talk with the Kyuubi, then the fox might actually know something that could help them. The tailed beasts predated the shinobi system, after all, and if anyone knew the world inside out, it would be the creatures considered to be sentient forces of nature.

The little blond knew more about the legendary First Hokage than just about anybody else, information that only those closest to the man would know, probably. Enough to point out that the 'wood' element was a misconception, and he didn't sound like he'd been making it up. He wouldn't break his usual silence to just spout nonsense, after all.

He resolved to ask Naruto if he had any idea what they could do on the morning. Right now, Naruto was his biggest hope. Even if he didn't, he had the best chance of finding out by consulting the Kyuubi on this matter. Even if the Uchiha wasn't certain if the Kyuubi would even answer, or if Naruto could talk to it.

He looked at the position of the moon on the sky and where it'd come from. He couldn't be fully accurate, but he could guess that it was about time for his other self's turn. Kakashi hadn't been fully clear when he'd explained the method they'd use to tell time when they didn't have a clock at hand, so he took to carrying a clock with him. The pocket watch had been his father's, and the man hated it with a passion.

Apparently, it had been a gift from one of his cousins as a joke due to Fugaku being anal about punctuality. It had also proven to be durable enough that when the man had taken it on a mission, it'd been completely unharmed. Deciding he didn't need it (his internal sense of time was amazing), Fugaku gave it to his son without many reservations.

"Man, I must be really bored if I'm telling myself where I got this watch…" Sasuke muttered to himself, realizing that he'd spent several minutes just dwelling on where the watch came from for no reason. He blamed it on the lack of anything more interesting going on. It did burn the last few minutes.

It was early, but then again, Sasuke didn't really care as he turned to where the others were sleeping. Like a boss, he went and poked his other self awake, clearly not giving half a shit about the other's comfort when he started annoying him so he woke up faster. Neither of them was a morning person, but ninja should be alert the moment they wake up, because you never know if you will wake up in the middle of an enemy unit or a prison.

It was a hazard like no other to be as careless as the other Sasuke was being, even if he WAS sleeping with his allies. Sasuke did not call him out on it, however, as that would be highly hypocritical considering how many times he'd done the exact same thing (ultimately the reason why he'd gotten first guard).

Uchiha's guard went by without much incident. Clearly, there wasn't much to fear that night, but they'd still been attacked not too long ago, so they couldn't be really sure. Alertness was necessary at this point. Gato could send anyone from another chunin team to a full team of jounin. While missing nin were not by any stretch of the word cheap, Gato was richer than the Uchiha and Senju put together, and could probably field a full team of missing nin without denting his finances.

Haruno had been extremely nervous when her beloved Sasuke woke her up. She was by far the weakest member of team seven and she knew it. When her counterpart had told her that Naruto could take her out with a few blows at the most, she had actually internally agreed, even if she didn't show it. She knew, very well, that all of what she had read was now pointless.

Because all the book knowledge in the world did nothing on her absolute lack of skill when it came to practice. She could hit a reasonably sized target accurately, she could perform each and every kata of the academy standard style perfectly, she could recite from memory a variety of concepts that most ninja would only learn when they were chunin and she could give you a thorough rundown of the history of the Leaf Village.

But all of that was useless in a fight. She needed far too much time to aim if she wanted to hit a target and couldn't throw kunai fast and hard enough to make them hard to dodge. She also couldn't predict where an opponent would move even from the most obvious cues, lacking any battle instincts whatsoever.

She was slow and weak and her stamina was laughable at best. Her chakra control had been praised in the academy, but she had gotten tired from the leaf sticking exercise. An exercise that was done in the first year of the academy, that even an eight year old boy could hold for a few hours (if they had the control to, of course), would tire her out in less than an hour.

In short, she realized just how horribly weak she was when put next to her teammates, and right now, she was lacking a very important part of her day. Namely, she was lacking the crutch that she had been leaning on, well, metaphorically speaking at any rate. Usually, when she was feeling down or when the Uchiha tried his hardest to get her to stop chasing him by being an absolute dick to her, she always had a blond little ball of sunshine that would do his best to prop her up again.

Haruno shook her head. She found herself doubting whether or not her treatment of was enough to feel this bad. She normally didn't have time to dwell over something like this during the day. Normally, her beloved would be putting her down and the object of her frustrations would immediately after prop her back up again.

All the while doing something to distract her from her own depression. That was when her palm violently met her large forehead. She had to stop dwelling on such thoughts, because she was responsible for her team and their alternate universe counterparts. There was no time to dwell on how she sucked as a kunoichi. She'd have time for that later.

"Hm… Girl, I've gotta axe you a question." A rather low, drawling voice spoke, causing Sakura's eyes to instantly go wide with terror. A silvery flash was visible as the moonlight reflected from the polished steel blade of a rather huge axe. The bright pink hair of its wielder caused Sakura to sigh. The girl was resting the massive axe against her left shoulder, using her arm to keep it in place.

"You almost gave me a heart attack." The thinner pinkette said, holding a hand to her chest.

"Well, if I were an enemy, you'd be dead well before you even noticed me coming." Sakura said, shrugging. "I wasn't even trying to be stealthy, you weren't paying any attention whatsoever. By the way…" She began, raising her right hand and showing that she was holding something on it too. It was a brown furred fox, most likely covered with dirt to dull its fur even further. "This thing was trying to steal our food. And now, it IS food." She spoke, smiling. "You really need to pay more attention to your surroundings."

"That's mean… what did that poor fox do to you?" She asked, clearly looking uncomfortable with the thought of killing and eating the animal who hadn't really done anything to them that would merit such an, in her honest opinion, barbaric act.

"Besides trying to eat my food, you mean?" She asked. "Nothing, really. Though I guess I have a weak spot for foxes." She said, letting go of the fluffy tail. The creature hit the ground feet first and instantly darted away, hiding into the overgrown bushes and trying to get away from the ninja it thought it could steal from.

"A weak spot for foxes?" Asked Haruno, tilting her head in clear confusion.

"I have my reasons." Sakura replied, giving an one armed shrug as her left arm was occupied holding her weapon in place. With a flourish, the weapon was sealed into a symbol engraved into her kunai pouch. Kakashi had made it for her, thinking it a hilarious and nasty surprise to anyone who thought she'd pull out a kunai from there. She'd agreed on the hilarity.

Poor Kiba would never be the same after seeing her pull a giant axe from the kunai pouch closest to her crotch. She had almost fallen in love with the idea after that, seeing the weirded out faces she could pull from people when they saw her pull a gigantic axe from what seemed like her ass.

Haruno merely offered an inquiring frown, but did not press the issue, probably figuring out that Sakura would not tell her even if she asked. "Anyway… why are you awake? It's still my turn…" She stated.

"Yes, it is." The other pinkette agreed, nodding. "But I'm just too used to this particular schedule and I think it's just better if we keep to it." She explained, shrugging. "And I also did want to ask you a question… Do you want to be stronger?"

Haruno raised an eyebrow. The pun last time had been bad, but apparently very much necessary. Even so, the thinner pinkette found herself wondering why she'd ask such a question to herself. Of course she wanted to be stronger. Who wouldn't want to be? "Of course!" She replied, not thinking the answer through very much.

"Yeah, silly me, of course you want to be stronger." Sakura said, waving her hand. "Why?" She added, raising an eyebrow.

"So I can impress Sasuke-kun." Haruno replied automatically, wilting like an old flower when she noticed the harsh glare on her other self's face.

"Damn, I used to be like that too…" The slightly bigger pinkette lamented. "No muscles anywhere, no motivation and no effort put in to anything. Crap, I knew Sasuke was right, but he might have been understating it…" She explained as she looked at her other self up and down, analyzing her.

"Who are you to criticize why I want to be stronger?" Haruno found herself defending her motivation automatically, as she had many times before. Her tone spoke of a line that was rehearsed many times. "You're just jealous because-" Then she stopped. She wasn't talking to Ino. She wasn't talking to one of the other kunoichi who used to look down on her due to her poor practical grades. She wasn't talking to someone trying to put her down…

… She was talking to herself, almost literally. "-because I have the perfect figure for Sasuke-kun, right?" Her other self finished when she stopped, causing Haruno to nod dumbly. "Okay, first of all, what kind of woman do you think that your Sasuke would like?"

"Sasuke-kun likes girls with long hair." The pinkette said, gesturing to her long, shiny and soft pink hair and pointing at the other girl's similarly flowing hair, except the latter was quite clearly less well taken care of and showed the signs of having suffered from rough treatment.

"That's all you know?" Asked Sakura, raising one eyebrow. "If I had to guess, I could tell you that he probably doesn't give a flying shit about hair." The rougher pinkette spoke, smiling widely. "He doesn't seem the type to concern himself with appearances much."

"What would you know?" The other one said, scowling.

"Well, he IS pretty much my best friend other than Ino." Shrugged the pink haired girl that did not have arms that resembled stiff noodles.

Haruno blinked. "… Right." She said, feeling thoroughly humiliated by her own mistake right then and there.

"Anyway, if you just want to be strong to get Sasuke to like you, you will never truly be strong." It might have been the light of the moon, the silhouette of the distant, nearly full satellite, but at that point, Haruno felt as if she was standing before what she could have been. Standing before her potential. "But that's not to say that you can't learn. That you can't improve."

Haruno raised an eyebrow in doubt. "But all you've been doing is criticizing everything I do and my reasons for doing so. Now you say that I can improve? I thought I was hopeless, from your words." The girl had it in her to put fire into her words. It was clear that she had the will. Hidden underneath the exterior of the fangirl was the soul of a woman who could be better.

Both knew this. "I was like you once." Sakura began, smiling. "In fact, I might actually have been even more dependant and clingy than you." She said, shrugging. "It took until Sasuke described every last one of my flaws in excruciating detail for me to get it. For me to understand just how far down I'd fallen and how much work I'd have to put to climb back up."

At some point, Haruno realized that she was laying on her ass, probably she'd fallen when she'd been given the scare of a lifetime. That axe was truly terrifying to see in the middle of nowhere during night. This was just too appropriate, as it allowed the slightly bigger pinkette to offer her a hand that was both symbolic and literal. "Are you sure?"

"If I could do it, so can you."

With a warm smile that spoke of understanding, the cherry blossoms' hands linked together and a mighty pull had them both standing face to face.

"I'm sorry I acted like a total bitch, but I'm trying to make a point here." Sakura began, smirking.

"Tough love?" asked the thinner pinkette, offering her a sly smile.

"Nah. Being a total bitch is incredibly fun. You should try it sometime. Trust me. You just gotta pick your targets correctly." Said the girl who was on her way to becoming an Amazonian beauty. "I probably won't be around long enough to spread the message, so do me a favor and convince Ino to follow your lead on this one for me, would you? I kinda owe her for giving me what little self confidence I have and I still feel like a total bitch for ending our friendship over that dick over there." She said, gesturing to the place where the boys were sleeping.

Haruno giggled as she heard herself say those words. She was far beyond the point where she'd be insulted by insults to her crush… at least for now.

Sakura found herself hoping against hope that her lecture stuck with her smaller counterpart.

* * *

The next day, the makeshift camp had to be unmade. Something that the two blonds and Tazuna very quickly set upon doing. While the older blond proved clumsy at first, he also learned quick and Tazuna didn't seem to mind teaching him the nuances of how to properly care for each and every camping implement.

It brought a smile to the silver haired man's face to see how easily Naruto could cooperate with his counterpart and the old man once they got past the name calling and the insults thrown by the drunkard who even now had a bottle of sake already tied to his hip to drink whenever he wanted to.

The smaller Naruto also seemed to make it a point to show his older counterpart how to do the things that Tazuna explained, probably figuring that Naruto would learn better by seeing things done rather than by hearing about how to do them. He had been right, and probably because who would know the boy better than himself?

The three were making short work of something that would've taken significantly longer had the others interfered. During the time in which they set about doing that, both of the other members of what was the alternate team seven to Kakashi had set out to find something to eat that wasn't the rations Kakashi had ordered his team to bring with themselves.

Meanwhile, the silver haired jounin sat down and yawned in a very loud and obvious fashion, enjoying life while he could. His other two students were being less than useful at the moment, but both of them understood they'd just get in the way of the teamwork displayed by the other Sakura and Sasuke, and it would be pointless to join the chase.

Hatake Kakashi is not a man to ever let a chance to annoy someone go by without taking advantage of it, however. "Here's an exercise for you two. I want you two to find and then shadow your copies." He said, looking at the both of them. "You need stealth training, and you're clearly not doing anything."

Sakura scowled. "You aren't doing anything either." She informed.

Sasuke nodded, and Sakura tried her hardest to squash the butterflies fluttering in her stomach at her crush agreeing with her words, barely managing not to turn her thoughts into their usual. Namely, she'd usually scream 'See? Even Sasuke-kun agrees with me!' at that point. The chat with her other self was still fresh in her mind.

"Well, I certainly don't need how to be taught to sneak up on people." Kakashi stated, raising an eyebrow. "Just got to do what I told you to do already."

"Well, we could try to do that." Sakura began, raising an eyebrow. "But given that they're already here, that would be pretty hard." This caused Sasuke to blink and turn to Sakura's left, where indeed there was a second Sakura. This was actually starting to get incredibly confusing.

Kakashi blinked as he watched two thirds of the alternate team 7, the one trained by his counterpart who actually found a way to make them stick together as a team, appear right the fuck out of nowhere, or from beyond his rather limited visual and then scratched an itch on the back of his head. "So you're gonna go look for a way back, then?"

"Yeah…" Sasuke said, nodding to the jounin. "I guess we can go look for the same cave we were in when we came here in the first place. It came to me last night during my turn at guard. It's really the only thing we can do by this point."

"If you think it'll help." Sakura said, shrugging. "I kinda wanted to stick around for this mission." Whether or not she admitted it, she was still kinda worried over their other selves. She was starting to feel closer to her other self, after all. Sasuke could understand her.

"You're leaving?" Asked Haruno, looking down. "Good luck, I hope you can find a way back to your world." Though she didn't actually sound all that enthusiastic over the idea, she had accepted the fact that their other selves would be leaving. It had only been a day and it certainly hadn't been the best way of meeting.

"… I'll think about what you told me." Uchiha said, nodding at Sasuke and receiving a nod in turn. Kakashi smiled behind his mask at this. Ah, don't you love it when your inter-dimensional students do the actual hard work for you?

"Can I ask you a favor?" Said Sasuke, looking around and then walking to a corner with his counterpart. "This might be too much to ask but… Keep an eye on your Naruto."

Uchiha raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care so much about him?" Asked the borderline emo last loyal Uchiha of his dimension.

Sasuke smiled. "I don't know. I guess I've always wanted a little brother and he just fell into the role." He said, shrugging and shaking his head. "He needs someone to take care of him because he won't do it himself. Different though they might be, both of them seem to be incapable of taking good care of themselves… Think of it as a personal project. After all, if you can raise that knucklehead into a decent shinobi, bringing up a new Uchiha clan really ought to be no problem, right?"

Despite himself, Uchiha actually laughed. "You may be right." He admitted, once his laughter died down. "The dobe…"

"Has as much potential as us… if not even more. Heck, you just need to luck at my Naruto. He's two years younger than us yet he's the strongest genin, no doubt." Explained Sasuke.

"As if." Uchiha sneered.

"You'll find out in time that I'm right. All you've gotta do is convince him to kick his training up a few notches." The heir of the still living clan spoke, fully serious. "Okay, then, we're goi-"

"No." The soft voice was, once again, a thorough shock for everyone. Except this time there were four more people to be shocked by Naruto speaking out of nowhere. The little blond boy put down the cup ramen he'd been given by the taller blond (the third one, at that, though he was only on the third because he was eating at a sedate pace, unlike his alternate dimension counterpart who was inhaling them as fast as possible).

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Asked Sasuke, being the first to break from the reverie of the little blond talking.

Looking down at the ground for a few seconds, Naruto seemed to resolve himself to continue speaking at that point. "I will go." He said, passing what remained of the instant ramen to the older blond.

"You know of a way to get back?" Sakura asked, looking surprised, shocked and relieved. Sasuke made a guess that she herself had probably unconsciously been banking on Naruto knowing a way out of this mess, just as he had.

Naruto shook his head. "Not certain." He said. "But possible."

Kakashi raised one eyebrow. "Do you mind informing us on what you're talking about? Anything that has the power to cross dimensions is in Konoha's best interest to know about." The usually lazy jounin spoke, shifting slightly so his posture was less surprised than he really was.

Naruto merely shook his head and patted his stomach. While the effect of the gesture was lost on some, the rest had a very clear idea of what he might be referring to. Uzumaki suppressed a wince when he realized what he had meant with that gesture. After all, the older blond was quite vehement in his refusal to ever have anything to do with the fox.

While the blond questioned whether or not it was good to use the fox's power when it was necessary, Kakashi found himself nodding in approval of the course of action. "I imagine you will need your space to consult your sources, then. We will continue our mission for now, with your teammates tagging along. We'll be heading east to a small island called the Land of Waves. When you've got news, report to us."

"Wow… Kakashi-sensei is acting like a real authority…" Naruto remarked, clearly shocked out of his thoughts by the sight of his teacher being a jounin instead of a lazy jackass for once.

Haruno had actually already guessed, from last night, that just about everything Kakashi did was attempting to teach them a lesson. Perhaps the man was unintentionally trying to tell them to relax and unwind but that there were also times where seriousness was necessary. Lord knows he wouldn't teach them crap willingly or in a non-convoluted manner, though, which made Sakura want to punch him in the crotch. Both of them.

"I'm going to agree with the little kid there." Tazuna spoke, looking at Kakashi like he had grown a second head. "You're super irresponsible." He added, seeing Kakashi's flat glare.

"Screw you guys." The jounin said, pouting behind his mask and shoving his hands into his pockets. "I was gonna teach you something really cool, but now I'll keep all my awesome ninja techniques to myself." He whined, looking away before returning to seriousness and concentrating his gaze on the smallest member of either team 7.

The little blond merely offered him a nod and then turned around.

"Your safety takes priority." The silver haired jounin spoke.

No reply was given as the blond disappeared in a cloud of dust and flying blades of grass. There was a small spot of upturned earth from the powerful bound that had launched Naruto into the trees. Seeing the after effects of the little shinobi's jump, he let out a small whistle. "No chakra." He murmured to himself.

He then decided that there was no real point in dwelling in place any longer. "We'll eat breakfast and continue on. I want to at least be close to the shore by night fall."

It was a reasonably slow pace, even if a bit quicker than the standard that would be used when accompanying a civilian client. The standard was used for C rank missions, where there were basically no threats. A genin team is, in many ways, perfect to escort a client. Genin rarely had trouble facing the scum of the roads other than the trouble that came from the first time they end a life, and the threat of bandits would be laughable at best to a jounin.

Much more so to a jounin of Kakashi's caliber.

It was not too long before they had taken to the road again. Sakura being Sakura, and Haruno being also Sakura, they actually began to compare data of their dimensions, utilizing the fact that they could both recall comprehensive, encyclopedic knowledge that most people would deem superfluous such as the statistics that hidden villages made public.

Kakashi had a very well founded suspicion that Naruto was learning more from this than what he had learned during his entire tenure at the academy, and the jounin knew exactly why. After all, the blond had been nearly drooling at the sight of two of his crush. Then again, Kakashi could understand the allure of the twin threesome fantasy.

Deciding that he might as well cast all thoughts of the real world, in which beautiful twins were not willing to please each other in adult ways, to the void while immersing in the fantasy world crafted by the greatest author of all, the Gamasennin himself, Jiraiya. In Jiraiya's beautiful world, there was nothing that was impossible for the great hero to accomplish. He giggled as he thought of the great hero's accomplishments, which caused all of his genin to look at him weirdly.

"Hey… Uhm… Sensei… You wouldn't happen to have a copy we could take to our world…"

Sasuke might have been silent enough that only Kakashi's always-alert ears caught him, but there was no hiding the fact that Sakura flashed them a rather interested look, as well. At that point, he began to feel a stinging sensation behind his eye as it burned and his vision blurred. "My other self just became my new idol." He murmured. "And… I can always get another copy…" He added, high enough for Sasuke to hear.

That was the moment in which the greatest resolve of all awakened within the silver haired elite jounin's mind. Indeed, he had been without a purpose and without a real motivation for a very long time. However, when that feeling of pride and accomplishment washed over him despite the achievement that caused it being something done by an alternate universe counterpart, he understood, he finally understood, what he had come to this world to do.

He had come to this world to spread the gospel of the one true prophet, the one who would bring peace to the world by conquering the cycle of hatred… through love. Yes, love was the force that would conquer all, love was the almighty power that trumped all others. Love was what made sworn enemies find peace and friendship.

Love was the great enlightening feeling that had produced the greatest literary masterpiece to have ever existed, by guiding the hand of its most staunch supporter, of its supreme prophet. Kakashi now realized, for the first time in his life, that something he had started doing, as a complete joke and because he really had too much free time on his hands, was something that would carry him and give him happiness beyond his wildest dreams.

The conclusion that Kakashi had come to had been the one that could have brought peace to the eternally violent Bloody Mist, the one that could have cooled the burning hatred the Rock held towards the Yellow Flash, the one that could have soothed the wounded pride of each and every Suna nin suffering from a humiliating defeat during the third world war, the one that could have convinced even the military-power obsessed Yondaime Raikage to lay down his arms.

"Evidently, I must become a porn distributor." Kakashi noted to himself, rubbing his chin and nodding. "I shall distribute Jiraiya-sama's word… "

Tazuna, who was walking next to Kakashi (because the safest place was where the Jounin could get you out of the way as fast as possible), raised an eyebrow.

Without saying a word, Kakashi pulled a second orange book and handed it to Tazuna, who seemed to be entirely distracted by the tacky-looking pocket book. "Read this and you will understand." He said.

The drunkard didn't seem all that convinced at the time.

But Kakashi didn't mind. The man would learn, with time, to respect the power of Jiraiya's divinely inspired prose.

The elite jounin giggled once again as he continued reading about the Hero who could conquer any woman through clever use of his godly good looks, a charming word or two and a lot of aphrodisiacs. Hey, nobody said that love didn't need a push sometimes, right?

* * *

You know, I was recently looking over the views/reviews on each and every chapter and... Good god, people, chapter 10 has the most reviews of anything I've ever written. Heck, it has nearly as many reviews ALONE as one of my other fics has in all of its eight chapters combined! This is just stupifying for me. Didn't think people would like this story that much.

It really makes me feel nice to know I'm loved, folks, and I'm really, really sorry about the delay, but the story is getting progressively harder to write as I go and my focus keeps getting divided into many other fics. I'll try to release at least one chapter a month, and I try to release at least a chapter of any of my given fics or a one shot per week at the very least, but sometimes, I just don't have the time.

As always, thanks for reading. Any form of criticism is welcome, as usual.


	13. Premature Exorcism

A grim smile drew itself on his lips. He observed his targets with a keen eye as they moved about the hardened dirt path, without a care in the world. They knew not of their stalker, he was certain he was very well hidden. Even the best of them would at most feel the presence of an animal in his location.

The targets chatted amongst themselves animatedly, walking with a spring to their step that meant they were probably in relatively good condition, well rested and fed. No matter. It made no difference, in the end. Their numbers could make a difference… but he had a trump card that would surely triumph against an advantage as simple as numbers.

Simple problems necessitate simple answers, and this one was very simple indeed. An age old, tried and true tactic. Divide and conquer. Perhaps an unorthodox application, but an effective one nonetheless, would purchase this fight in his favor.

The younger ones wouldn't be an issue. Decapitate the snake and the rest of the body dies too. It just takes a bit longer. No matter. Backup was prepared if his initial tactic didn't work out. It didn't pay, after all, to leave things to chance at a time like this.

The smile on his lips faded, his face schooled itself into the mask of a demon come straight from hell. His hands tightened their hold on his favored choice of weapon. Every muscle tensed as one as the main target suddenly perked up.

Showtime.

* * *

The woods of wave were peaceful. There were only the sounds of birds and a few smaller animals. As well as the steps of a group of five genin, a civilian and a jounin who were travelling across the misty paths of the Island Nation that is the Wave Country. The scenery would have been interesting had they been capable of seeing more than a kilometer in the distance, and that was with enhanced sight.

Neither Kakashi nor Sasuke felt the need to use the Sharingan at the moment, as they were enjoying a reprieve from the paranoia brought on by being too close to their destination with nothing happening. An ambush was close, and this was very much putting tension on the genin.

And then Uzumaki had the brilliant idea to start asking random questions to his alternate universe team mates. Eventually, this turned into a round of questions, and even Tazuna jumped in to answer a few. Right now, Sasuke had asked Naruto what his favorite flavor of Ramen was, which had actually managed to stupefy him, as he had no real favorite.

His strained expression as he thought about it had been the reason they'd briefly relaxed; it had been the first time they'd seen him seriously thinking something over.

Kakashi blinked as he detected a presence. "GET DOWN!" He yelled, tackling the client as he did, causing them both to land on the ground as a mess of limbs.

Sasuke, in a hurry, threw himself to the ground. However, his eyes widened when he saw that the Uzumaki of this world had been slower. He had been distracted. The worst moment for an ambush, when he just happened to be distracted with a question, and once again, Naruto, this time another one completely, would wind up hurt because Sasuke had messed up.

A black disk went screaming through the air, and Sasuke's active Sharingan saw it as a quickly rotating zanbatou. There was no way Uzumaki would survive that one, he'd be cleaved in half. Sasuke had to do something, but he just wasn't fast enough to make any form of difference whatsoever.

"Down, moron!" Yelled Sasuke's own voice, coming from behind the blond, as the boy who Sasuke thought doomed was suddenly and brusquely pulled to the floor. The black disk passed by just as Uzumaki cleared cutting height, taking away one lock of golden hair as it passed.

Sasuke was immensely grateful towards his counterpart. He'd very nearly gotten Naruto killed twice, and had only been saved by someone else. It was painful, very much so, to realize that he was probably the main threat to his best friend's life.

Uzumaki was too stunned by the experience to talk.

"Thank god." Murmured Sakura, sighing in relaxation. She then removed her hand from the back of her counterpart's head. "… Your hair's really soft." She noted, looking at Haruno, who managed to look positively scathing despite having her face covered in dirt.

"Well, well, what do we have here? I didn't know the great Copy Nin had a mobile daycare center." Said a loud, gruff voice, startling the group into turning around.

Tazuna almost shat himself in fear when he saw Gato's main enforcer. That was the guy who Gato sent when someone REALLY pissed him off. There were no games with that guy. No amount of pleading would get you anywhere. Unless you could put more money on the table than Gato, if that man came after you, you'd be a bloodstain in his blade before the end of the night.

"They offered me too much money." Kakashi stated, his voice flat. "But that's beside the point. I didn't know the great Demon of the Bloody Mist was a petty mercenary. Oh, how the mighty swordsmen have fallen, eh Zabuza?"

Zabuza allowed himself a few barks of laughter. "Gato offered me too much money." Zabuza admitted. "Normally, I wouldn't face you in a straight up fight. After all, you're famous for never losing an one on one fight." The demon of the mist continued, looking completely unashamed. "But it's at times like these that it pays to be on your own. Don't have any brats weighing me down."

"Hey! We totally kick ass!" Screamed Uzumaki, angered that he was dismissed as dead weight upon first sight. "You'll see when I use your face to wipe this road!"

"Actually, he's totally right." Kakashi corrected. "The way you are now, you'd just get in my way. If you were trained to work together as a fluid team, I'd say take him, but…"

"We're throwing your teamwork off." Sakura caught. Kakashi nodded absent mindedly.

Haruno blinked. "What? But you guys kick ass! Besides, didn't you say that you could totally take Kakashi-sensei? With you guys as backup, we can't lose!"

Sasuke shook his head. "We can't work together with you guys. I don't know how you fight, you don't know how we fight. We'd just get in each other's way." He spoke, keeping his sharingan trained on Zabuza.

Uchiha grunted. "You're right."

For once, he found himself surprised because he and Uchiha agreed on something. While they hadn't had a good start, their relationship wasn't anything other than cordial. Uchiha seemed to have been in thought for a while, brooding more than usual according to Uzumaki.

"Well, can't say that you don't have some smart brats with you." Zabuza seemed to be amused about this fact. "Tell you what, I don't feel like killing kids who don't know how the world works yet. That'd just be boring. And I know I can't beat you in a straight up fight unless I target the kids to distract you. So what say you I take my target and just leave? You get to keep your kids out of harm, I get to complete my mission, everybody's happy."

"Except me." Tazuna was decidedly less amused.

"Yeah, well, it's the basis of comedy. Somebody has to suffer and today just happens to be your turn." The Kiri missing nin seemed even further amused by Tazuna's reaction.

"Kakashi-sensei, there's no way we're leaving Tazuna after this!" Uzumaki said, full of conviction. "We'll be fine, you'll see!"

"Well, he's right." Kakashi said, shrugging. "I'm afraid I can't abandon this mission now."

"Well, that's just too bad." Zabuza sighed, sounding displeased by this turn of events. "Oh well, at least it'll be a little fun if the kids can actually fight… Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu (Ninja Arts: Hidden in the Mist)

"Surround the client." Kakashi spoke. "Don't leave a blind spot. I don't think Zabuza brought anyone with him, but it never hurts to be sure." That and if the Demon Brothers had been hired, it's possible that Gato had the idea of making his shinobi thugs work in groups for best results.

Team 7 and the alternate Team 7 nodded and shot to their positions, surrounding Tazuna.

"Peekaboo!" Zabuza yelled, as he popped out of the mist right in front of one of the two pink haired girls. Sakura narrowed her eyes and knew for a fact that if Zabuza swung his blade, she would be unable to stop it. Experience with larger weapons proved that it was harder to stop them than it was to swing them. She had already brought out a kunai, preparing for versatility and speed instead of force.

She knew that blocking was not an option… so she actually dashed forward and stabbed at Zabuza. The surprise in his face was evident, and Sakura was treated to how the reflex of a jounin are so sharp that even when they're thoroughly shocked, an experienced jounin would still dodge a genin's attack, no problem, and with a very fluid dodge to boot.

It had been Zabuza taking a step to the right at the last second. Realizing he was not in range to swing his massive blade, Sakura tried to press on her attack, but before she could slash with the Kunai horizontally, hoping to catch him in the chest, she felt all the air in her lungs being driven out as a knee buried itself in her stomach.

She was backhanded to the ground, which she hit unceremoniously.

"Sakura-chan!" She heard Uzumaki yell, and she cursed as she realized that Zabuza had a free shot at Tazuna due to her inadequacy. Then Sakura saw Haruno call her teammate over. She smiled at the sight.

Both of the Uchiha boys instantly pounced on Zabuza. Uchiha had been closer and gotten there first, attacking with a quick jab to Zabuza's kidneys. His attack was interrupted when his wrist was grabbed, however, and Zabuza used him as a club to attack the other charging Uchiha, displaying his superior physical strength.

Sasuke was not that easy to defeat, though, and he used the precognitive abilities of the sharingan to evade the Uchiha-club, delivering a knife hand to Zabuza's left wrist that forced him to let go of his counterpart. The man seemed more amused than anything else by this, and simply engaged in a brief Taijutsu match that ended by Zabuza displaying his superior speed to deliver a devastating roundhouse kick that sent Sasuke flying on the other direction Uchiha had gone flying ni.

Uzumaki growled at the display. His hands met in a familiar sign. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" The yell came out at too high a volume to not be heard, and the puffs were masked under the mist. Instantly, there were half a dozen clones, three on each side of the original, and they charged as one.

To Zabuza, their fighting skill was so laughable that he could've taken them out with a kunai he held in his mouth, so he merely dispatched them with his free left hand, holding Kubikiribocho in the right, resting against his shoulder.

A clone jumped up, looking as if it wanted to deliver a jump punch to Zabuza's face, and the adult prepared to smack him out of the air with his sword, before it could get in range, and so he gripped the sword with both hands. There was a chance that it was the original, given that the others had seemed to be covering for this most unsubtle of attacks, and if it was, then Zabuza would end the clones' annoyance there and then.

The clone, however, exploded into smoke just as it reached the perfect distance Zabuza would need to hit him to get the perfect splash of blood when he bisected the kid.

It was very easy to tell why it had dispelled.

Following behind the clone was an expertly thrown kunai that had caught Zabuza completely by surprise. So much so, that it wasted very little time before it buried itself in the missing nin's skull, penetrating through with ease and stopping when it hit the back.

The last thing he saw was the pink haired little girl who'd hit him put on a horrified expression at the sight of her gambit paying off. Immediately afterwards, the clone burst into water.

"Kakashi nine, genin one." A disembodied voice informed them. "To be fair, I'm kinda impressed you could take on a single clone."

"They're awesome genin." Kakashi spoke, his tone bored. "Sorry about leaving you guys to deal with a clone on your own." He added, popping out of the mist cover next to his team, dropping Uchiha, who scrambled to his feet, and helping Sakura get back up.

"We're just getting started, though. Time to stop fucking around." The disembodied voice was menacing, charged with the killing intent that only an experienced mass murderer could project. The genin froze, rooted to their spot with fear. A cold chill made itself the backdrop of the scene of terror as the mist became an impassable white wall.

Soon there were the sounds of combat echoing all around, frantic and high paced. The jounin were taking their bout seriously and it showed.

The genin grabbed the petrified Tazuna and tried to make a break for it, or to at least retreat beyond the mist. As they were, they were just stationary and easy targets, forcing their teacher to protect them.

No soon had they broke out of the mist, they found something quite interesting. A masked shinobi was standing just outside the mist. For some reason, Sakura could just tell that the masked shinobi was smiling underneath that porcelain mask. The androgynous shinobi lifted one of his… her… its hands, showing three needles held on it. A quick flick of the wrist sent them fling.

Sakura saw them coming. Haruno saw them coming. Uchiha saw them coming. Uzumaki saw them coming.

The client, however? The client didn't have the required ninja training to dodge.

"Dammit!" Sakura threw her arm, intercepting the needles before they could hit the client. She blocked two of them, one with the blade and the other with the ring of the kunai she still clutched tightly. The third, however, buried itself on the tip of one of Sakura's fingers. Her sentiment was echoed by this universe's Team 7.

Deciding against standing still, Sakura threw herself at her attacker, ripping the needle off her finger and throwing it back.

The hunter nin, or at least the person that looked like one from her perspective, caught the thrown needle with ease and somehow stabbed it into the charging Uchiha in a pressure point in his arm that forced his powerful punch to end before it came. Uchiha was not deterred, however, and his leg quickly snapped to action, delivering a devastating kick that was nonetheless easily blocked.

The hunter nin was forced to jump back when Sakura joined the fray. "Keep him busy!" Sakura ordered Uchiha, who growled at her exertion of authority but nonetheless moved to execute her command, probably because that's what he was gonna do anyway.

Sakura looked back at the still shocked Haruno and shook her head. There'd be no support on that end. "You!" She said, pointing at Uzumaki. "Use your clones to box him in. Try to limit his movements as much as you can. Throw a pile of clones on top of him if you need to. Don't go into the melee yourself." She advised, watching the blond nod and join his hands in their usual seal.

Two dozen clones popped into existence, quickly joining Uchiha, who took a few steps back to watch the carnage as the hunter nin became a whirlwind of movement, dealing with the clones at speeds that dwarfed even the water clone Zabuza had sent at them. The clones managed to keep the boy occupied long enough for Sakura's plan to kick in, though.

With a grim expression, Sakura turned to the original Uzumaki and Uchiha… while showing them the same huge axe she'd almost sliced their teacher's arm off with. "Think you can give me a boost?" She asked. They both nodded.

The hunter dealt with the last clone just in time to notice that he… or she… was prevented from seeing or hearing anything by the clones' deaths, which obscured vision through smoke and clouded hearing through their constant popping. The smoke only cleared enough to see a blurry shape descending.

Sakura grimaced as the finality of the act she was about to commit hit her. Hesitation would do her no good, however, she couldn't stop even if she wanted to. That was why she'd picked up a jumping attack aided by the two boys throwing her up. So her own hesitation couldn't drag her attack back long enough for her target to find a way to dodge.

She was surprised when she didn't become covered in blood from splitting a human being in half, something she knew she could very easily do with such a heavy weapon. She had hit something. Something hard. Hard as steel, if it hadn't broken. She'd pushed it back, nearly to the point of flattening it against the ground. It was… a sheet of ice? It was. It was a relatively thick sheet of ice.

"I'm impressed." The hunter's voice was as androgynous as their clothes and general demeanor. "You forced me to use my secret weapon."

"A bloodline limit!?" Haruno nearly screeched.

"Huh? Whuzzat?" Asked Uzumaki.

Sakura groaned, then looked at Uchiha, who had shared her suffering. "He sucked at the academy." Uchiha informed her.

"Think about it this way. At least he gave a damn about the academy. Ours was dead last despite being capable of wiping the floor with our teachers. While asleep." She said, shrugging.

"If you're done with your little chat…" The hunter nin interrupted, sounding slightly annoyed by the casual demeanor of the leaf shinobi.

"Sorry, but I'm kinda scared here and I'm trying to keep it together through jokes." Sakura admitted shamelessly. "Normally, I have Sasuke to make clever, witty banter with, but I don't know where he is right now."

"It doesn't matter. You will all soon be dead."

"Clearly, I should've paid for a higher ranked mission." Tazuna said. "This is way out of hand."

"Yeah, you totally should have." Haruno replied.

"We'll be fine, you'll see." The golden haired Uzumaki said, full of confidence.

* * *

Visibility was reduced to very near to zero in this environment. There was absolutely no use for sight. Not even the mighty Sharingan could pierce the mighty blinds. Heck, even shapes were almost unrecognizable. So much so that you couldn't identify either of the figures that were jumping around and engaging in combat.

The leaf shinobi found himself concentrating as hard as possible. The target might be invisible, but it wasn't undetectable. While he couldn't possibly see the body itself moving, he could feel it displacing the wet air.

There. A flicker of movement felt through chakra sensing. Exploding into a flurry of attacks, both fighters met, blade to blade, a pair of smaller blades struggling against a much larger one.

A quick series of movements soon had blood flying through the air, staining the ground once more.

* * *

"We're not fine." Uchiha said, his tone dry and not particularly heated. It would be hard to find heat anywhere, given the ludicrous cold. Indeed, they were surrounded by large sheets of ice on all sides, forming an almost full dome over them that prevented them from escaping, provided a great defense for their enemy and looked stylish to boot.

At the very least, the hunter nin had the decency to leave the client out of the ice mirrors, obviously far more concerned with his fight with the shinobi than the possibility of the client escaping. It wasn't as if he would live much longer than his escort, anyway.

Sakura had taken a look at one of them and seen her own disheveled face. That wasn't a pretty sight, given that she had hit the ground more times than she cared to throughout this fight. The hunter nin that accosted them was fast.

Faster than she was used to dealing with.

He was also highly skilled. At least she'd confirmed the enemy as male, through asking, 'cause the pronoun confusion within her head was actually throwing her off her game, which in this fight was a big problem. Haruno had shown that she was slightly superior to Sakura herself in book smarts. Unlike Sakura herself, this universe's counterpart of her had diligently kept up with her studies, studying as many branches of the ninja arts as she could.

Up to and including the medical arts. That had been what allowed her to support her teammates and her counterpart, removing the needles without causing additional damage as well as identifying the mild paralytic poison that had made their movements sluggish, one that was countered by adrenaline.

"Cease resisting. Surrender and I won't have to kill you." The hunter nin stated, hidden within the mirrors. "I don't wish to harm you."

"You know, I could've bought that if you hadn't gone for the painful pressure points instead of the instant knockout ones." Sakura spoke, anger tinting her tone.

"You're not a big enough threat to warrant fighting seriously." The hunter admitted, sounding more than a little apologetic about the harsh words, but Sakura couldn't care less.

"Yeah, well, speedsters are kind of hard for me. If Sasuke, either of them, could haul ass and fight you, we wouldn't have this conversation, I'm sure." Sakura spoke, slightly annoyed at how Uchiha sat a few meters to her left. She liked her version of him better, at least that one could adapt to her movements. It was unfair, given that they'd trained together extensively and this guy didn't even know half of her skill set, but she was angry, she didn't care if it was unfair.

The problems had started coming up when they began going at the same target, bumping into each other, ruining the other's movements.

And of course, forcing Uzumaki to cover for them with his clones, who could do no more than take a single needle before dispersing, but they still stopped the needles dead and Sakura was certain he could make more clones than the hunter nin carried senbon.

"I must admit to some confusion. You must mean the other Uchiha. I assure you he will not come to your aid." The hunter spoke, voice echoing from the mirrors. "He could not put up a fight against me on his lonesome."

"He got the other Sasuke!" Uzumaki cursed. "What did you do to him!?"

"The same thing I shall do with you if you do not surrender." The hunter spoke.

Haruno gasped, Uchiha growled and Sakura grit her teeth. Her eyes then went to the one who had failed to react, entirely, as he was simply petrified on the spot. "You… you…"

"It is a sad act, but it is something that must be done… If I need to kill my heart to become a shinobi and perform my duties, then so be it." The hunter stated. Sakura saw the images in the mirrors shift, all of them beginning to move again. She cursed, another barrage of needles was coming, and Uzumaki was simply too distracted to bring up another throng of clones to soak the blows for them.

And Sakura knew that the hunter nin would aim to put the chakra monster that kept shielding them out of the equation. She cursed again.

"Dammit, Naruto! He's trying to psych you out!" Sakura yelled, lounging at him and tackling him to the ground. An odd sense of déjà vu filled the blond, and Sakura saw it in his face as he looked up at them. "Now do me a favor and keep focus on the fight next time, okay?"

Granted, immediately afterwards, the world went black, but she still got to pull off a smile at the funny expression he made when shocked.

"S-S-Sakura-chan!"

Haruno rushed forward, to where her counterpart had become a pincushion. Inwardly, she cursed as the last of the team that had joined their mission was put out of commission. They were stronger, she had no illusions about what would happen if their respective teams fought. Unlike her own teammates, they could work together and cover for each other's weaknesses.

What good would they do in a fight that the other two had lost? Granted, they'd had more than one disadvantage in this fight, but she was still certain that it wouldn't have made a difference. The expression on her crush's face meant that he was thinking the same thing. They were fucked.

Luckily, when she put her hands to the task of finding a pulse in the pink haired girl who'd just been hit with a barrage of needles to cover her blond moron of a friend, she found a steady and healthy pulse. "She's fine, just knocked out." She could practically feel the relief that came from the boy under her.

A quick movement had her lying on her stomach on the cold floor. Not much in the way of comfort, but better than putting her on her back. The wounds would look far uglier than they really were, just a whole bunch of pinpricks that would bleed a little and then no more. Senbon were clean weapons, used by clean hunters who were experts with the workings of the body in ways that she hadn't yet begun to study. Therefore, she was forced to work with what she knew. She just hoped it was enough.

"I'll pull off the needles, she should wake up soon after. I need cover."

Uzumaki nodded and stood up from the crouch he'd been in to face his teammate. His hands met in a familiar seal, yet again, and he pushed his chakra out just in time for the clones to form and stop another barrage of needles.

"Why must you continue to fight? It's pointless, I have defeated the strongest of your group." The androgynous voice taunted, as Uzumaki realized that he'd failed to cover Uchiha with the last clone horde.

"As if." Uchiha spoke, his voice showing anger. Uzumaki's eyes found his teammate suffering from the oddest case of pinkeye imaginable. "Naruto… Back me up… We need to take the fight to him!"

Uzumaki smiled, seeing that his teammate had blocked the senbon headed his way. Somehow, he'd just had a competency jump, but the blond didn't much care for that at the moment, being far more interested in the plan that sprang into both their minds at the same time. Clones flooded the dome of mirrors once again, blocking the assault on both Uchiha and Haruno as they performed their tasks.

Needles flew. Clones popped. Smoke masked.

"There!" Uchiha yelled, confidence almost dripping from his tone. Uzumaki and Haruno both blinked, in astonishment, as their teammate jumped into the air and punched their enemy squarely in the masked face.

This had the side effect of removing the mask, the straps keeping it in place snapping under the force of the punch. This only revealed an even more incredibly androgynous face than the voice, which made Haruno almost pout. He was absurdly pretty, and it just wasn't fair. Both Uchiha and his quarry fell to the ground on their feet.

"Impressive. You are the first to work past the demonic mirrors. The Sharingan must truly be something to make such a difference in your performance." The hunter explained, falling into motion, speaking while blocking all of Uchiha's incoming attacks, keeping an eye on the other three that were behind the black haired boy.

It wouldn't do to get caught by surprise by them.

Due to this, he was unable to jump back into the mirrors, Uzumaki had the foresight to put a clone on each mirror, as guard duty, to make damn sure he could block any attempts to restart the technique that had made the hunter so terribly annoying.

Uchiha's fighting prowess had drastically improved with the inclusion of his sharingan, this time fighting and matching his opponent blow for blow, not missing a beat and even pushing his opponent back. He would win. He would not be defeated here. He would not be stopped before he could find the conclusion to the questions that the other Sasuke had made him ask himself.

He was an Uchiha, the elite of the elite! A simple missing nin of a lesser clan could only hope to stare at his back as he continued paving his way forward!

That was the thought that ran through the Uchiha's mind as he threw the attack that would end the fight, a punch to the throat that would either cause enough damage to asphyxiate and kill or knock out from pain.

The only problem came when he realized the hunter nin was still faster. He had kept the fight on his favor through superior hand to hand skill. When he'd abandoned his clan's preferred defensive style to go for a killing blow, he'd only put himself in unnecessary danger. And it showed, when the hunter dodged.

Uzumaki, as he watched, couldn't help but wince as the hunter sidestepped the punch and took the chance to trip Uchiha, who went to the ground. The follow up was a barrage of needles that came too fast to be anything but planned, though Uchiha rolled forward before they could hit him, only a few managing to hit unimportant places that did nothing but sting.

The hunter was about to stomp on him before he could fully get back on his feet when he found his movements interrupted. Indeed, he found himself incapable of following up on his attack when Uzumaki charged through, a leg raised to deliver a move unwittingly inspired by Maito Gai's preferred form of party crashing.

The kick struck the hunter's chest when he turned around, hearing Uzumaki's yell… and it sent them both crashing to the ground, Uzumaki landing on top of the hunter. Both were surprised by this, though the hunter's hands were still free despite the rest of his body being pinned.

"Dammit, Naruto, DODGE!" Haruno yelled, as she saw the hunter flash through handsigns behind the blond's back… literally.

Uzumaki watched as the water-heavy mist condensed into tiny cylindrical shapes… which then froze over. He could scarcely do more than throw himself to the side as they seemingly took aim, and not a moment too soon was he out of the line of fire, for a few of them caught him when they converged on the spot he'd been not too seconds ago.

The hunter jumped to his feet, and went through another series of handsigns. He ducked under Uchiha's roundhouse and then slammed his palms on the floor. The hard dirt froze under his palms and then quickly spread.

Uchiha's sharingan showed him how the chakra gathered and he knew for a fact he didn't want to be caught in whatever jutsu this turned out to be, so he jumped back. Somewhere, the message was lost, and didn't get to Uzumaki, because he jumped forward to meet the hunter before the jutsu could be completed.

The only problem with doing so was that he was far too late to interrupt the technique.

When Uzumaki threw the punch that would most likely knock the hunter out, spikes of ice raised from the ground. And the blond was in the air, where he couldn't change his course.

With all the force carried by the jump and the spike's own considerable thrusting power, it had absolutely no trouble whatsoever piercing through the orange jacket that covered Uzumaki's upper body.

Blood splattered behind him, far enough to hit both of the kunoichi still behind the blond.

Uchiha's eyes widened.

Haruno was frozen in horror and shock.

Sakura screamed in anger and frustration at the sight.

And Sasuke, who'd been watching from outside the mirrors, undetected by the hunter, could only fall to his knees, a numb feeling spreading through his body. Once again… this had been his fault. He didn't know what it was about Naruto that affected him so. He supposed he could blame it on his ability to see through masks used to hide pain.

Plenty of practice with Itachi had ensured he could do so.

And both of them… both of them wore masks to hide their pain from the world. To hide their vulnerability. To hide how fragile they truly were. They wore their indestructible masks as an armor, as a cloak to hide the truth about themselves. Because it didn't matter how much chakra they had, how strong they were or how skilled they became.

All that made no difference if everyone could see the fragile heart behind it all. The fragile heart that Sasuke was certain only he could see. Sakura had an idea, but she didn't see deep enough. She didn't see the truth the way Sasuke did see it.

She understood, however, at some level, that Naruto wasn't the unflappable pillar of unending strength he appeared to be. He just had a wholly different set of weaknesses and vulnerabilities and he was that damn good at hiding them.

This was why they both had been trying to find a way to protect Naruto…

But Sasuke went farther than that. Sasuke was the first, and the only. Sasuke was the most constant presence in Naruto's life. Sasuke was the one who dressed his wounds when he went too far in training and hurt himself. Sasuke was the one who kept track of how long they'd been training to make sure the blond little boy wouldn't just collapse face first on the ground and just sleep on the training grounds.

Sasuke was the one who made sure Naruto ate more than just ramen, the one who made sure Naruto ate regularly and the one who made damn sure to always just be there in silent support if he couldn't do anything else. It was something he'd been doing so long that it was just part of his every day routine.

This new Naruto… wasn't like his. They were polar opposites. Yet at the same time… they were the exact same. Both of them. One was happy, chipper and cheerful while the other was almost always expressionless, apathetic and seemingly completely uncaring, yet both were the same person inside.

Sasuke hadn't taken long to come to care for the genin who was a bright sun contrasting with his counterpart's bleak moon. He was just as innocent, just as fragile and just as strong at the same time. Even despite the fact that this one was his same age, Sasuke couldn't help but see him as a younger sibling.

And he finally understood how Itachi felt when he said he worried about Sasuke himself. It was just a constant worry, in the back of your head. Always nagging you about their safety, their well being and their health.

Now Sasuke was coming face to face with a pain he was absolutely certain Itachi hadn't felt, a pain that he feared very much. The pain of seeing that the person he cared so much about had been hurt, and you could have prevented it. Had Sasuke just jumped in, had he been a little more impulsive, had he moved before thinking and just entered instead of trying to figure out a plan to beat the hunter nin…

If Sasuke had done something, anything at all, instead of waiting for the paralytic poison that the hunter had injected into him through his needles to wash out of his system, Uzumaki… Naruto… would not have been hurt again.

Tears rolled down Sasuke's cheeks. Then the world was engulfed in fire.

* * *

As the two combatants clashed once again, one of them, the one with the Leaf forehead protector, found a moment of distraction to be very nearly fatal. The distraction meant the next dodge was a fraction of a second too late, managing only to avoid a killing blow. It made no difference, however, as combat was joined once again, regardless of the blood coloring the ground now being indistinguishable from enemy to ally.


End file.
